give short shrift

To ignore, disregard, or exclude (someone or something); to give (someone or something) very little time or attention. A noun or pronoun can be used between "give" and "short." As the middle child with a troublesome older brother and a needy younger sister, I felt like I was given short shrift growing up. Despite its urgency, ministers are giving the issue short shrift in parliament.

Also, get short shrift. Give (or receive) cursory attention or little time. For example, The architect made elaborate plans for the entry but gave short shift to the back of the house . Literally, shrift refers to confession to a priest, who gives absolution and penance, and short shrift to the brief time allowed for this sacrament to a prisoner before execution. Shakespeare so used it in Richard III (3:4), but it came to be used more loosely in succeeding centuries. [Late 1800s]

To spend little time on. The term comes from the days when confessing to a priest was a virtually universal practice. Shrift meant not only the confession but also the penance or absolution given by the priest following confession. In Shakespeare’s Richard III, Ratclif, ordered by Gloucester (later Richard III) to have Hastings beheaded, says to him, “Come, come, dispatch; the duke would be at dinner: make a short shrift, he longs to see your head.” It began to be used more loosely in succeeding centuries, as in the quotation under look daggers at.