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shrug one's shoulders

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Show indecision or indifference, as in When I asked her if she minded staying home, she just shrugged her shoulders. This redundant idiom—shrug means “to raise and contract the shoulders”—dates from about 1450.

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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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