English · Idiom Historical

to make short work of it

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To dispose of it quickly, to deal summarily with it.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Xử lý nhanh chóng, giải quyết một cách tóm tắt

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “to make short work of it” mean?

To dispose of it quickly, to deal summarily with it.

Is “to make short work of it” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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