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Glite Dictionary
to make short work of

to make short work of

4 4.4
To finish something quickly and with little effort
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : resolver rápidamente
  • We made short work of the project and finished ahead of schedule.

Just come on through, keep on cutting and let's make short work of this.

Examples

  • The gate was locked, but one of the party made short work of it with a deftly wielded lock pick.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The U.S. Navy made short work of the Algerian forces, and a stricter peace pact was put in place.

    Blog text (18)

  • Pop made short work of his back orders.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • I'll make short work of this.

    Cyrano (2021)

  • Together we made short work of the rest of those bonds.

    Rogue Trader (1999)

  • You made short work of these beans.

    Killer Bean Forever (2008)

  • I used a friend's serger and made short work of it.

    Blog text (10)

  • We folded the laundry together and made short work of it.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Korben makes short work of him and grabs his gun.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • I've been following camel tracks all bloody morning, so let's make short work of this.

    Kangaroo Jack (2003)

Synonyms

to dispatch
vsto make short work of
20 4.9

To finish a task quickly and efficiently

is the informal phrasal expression used in everyday speech
to breeze through
vsto make short work of
  • Informal
5 3.6

To succeed at something quickly and easily

focuses on efficiency and speed rather than mere ease or success
to polish off
vsto make short work of
  • Informal
4 3.8

To finish something quickly and easily, for example a meal or a task

is the neutral efficient ending without implying thorough consumption
to make quick work of
vsto make short work of
  • Informal
4 3.9

Finish a task quickly and well

is the very similar idiomatic phrase used in everyday speech
to make light work of
vsto make short work of
  • Informal
1 4.1

To finish a task quickly and with little effort

is more about ease and little effort rather than efficiency

Antonyms

to prolong
96 3.9

To make something last longer

to dawdle
17 5.0

Move or act slowly and waste time, causing delay

How Fast

to blitz
2 4.2
to make short work of
  • Informal
4 4.4
to take time
286 2.3
to drag out
  • Informal
23 5.1

Surface Forms

make short work of infinitive
made short work of past
made short work of past participle
making short work of present participle
makes short work of third person singular

Morphology

make + short + work + of

The components 'short' (brief) and 'work' (task/activity) together with 'make' (to cause/do) give a clue that something is being handled briefly, so a learner could infer a meaning related to finishing something quickly. However, the fixed collocation 'make short work of' and its syntactic pattern are idiomatic and not fully predictable from the parts alone, so a B1 learner who has not seen the phrase before may not reliably derive the exact meaning.

Etymology

The idiom make short work of may come from the image of someone cutting a long job down so the work becomes short and ends quickly. That's why it means 'to finish something quickly and efficiently'.