Shrug

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Gesture of raising both shoulders

title: "Shrug" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["gestures", "human-communication"] description: "Gesture of raising both shoulders" topic_path: "general/gestures" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrug" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Gesture of raising both shoulders ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Shrug.jpg" caption="A man shrugging" alt="A man wearing a tiara, a loosened paisley necktie, and a pair of glasses with a beverage shrugging at the camera."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Diagram_showing_how_to_do_shoulder_shrugs_after_breast_reconstruction_surgery_CRUK_152.svg" caption="Diagram showing how to do shoulder shrugs after breast reconstruction surgery"] ::

A shrug is a gesture or posture performed by raising both shoulders. In certain countries, it is a representation of an individual either being indifferent about something or not knowing an answer to a question.

Shrugging

The shoulder-raising action may be accompanied by rotating the palms upwards, pulling closed lips downwards, raising the eyebrows or tilting the head to one side. A shrug is an emblem, meaning that it integrates the vocabulary of only certain cultures and may be used in place of words. In many countries, such as the United States, Sweden and Morocco, a shrug represents hesitation or lack of knowledge; however, in other countries, such as Japan and China, shrugging is uncommon and is not used to show hesitation. People from the Philippines, Iran and Iraq may interpret a shrug as a somewhat impolite sign of confidence.

Gallic shrug

The Gallic shrug, "generally a nuanced gesture with myriad meanings", is performed by sticking out your lower lip, raising your eyebrows and shoulders simultaneously, and voicing a nonchalant bof.

Emoji

The shrug gesture is a Unicode emoji included as . The shrug emoticon, better known as the shruggie, made from Unicode characters, is also typed as ¯_(ツ)_/¯, where "ツ" is the character tsu from Japanese katakana.

References

References

  1. "Shrug | Define Shrug at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com.
  2. (29 June 2017). "The shrug: Forms and meanings of a compound enactment". Gesture.
  3. (2009). "Telling Lies". [[W. W. Norton]].
  4. (2010). "Culture and Computing: Computing and Communication for Crosscultural Interaction". Springer-Verlag.
  5. (20 January 2017). "Long before the toast craze in the U.S., the French were making tartines". Washington Post.
  6. (4 January 2007). "To offend the French, fondle a slice of cheese". [[telegraph.co.uk]].
  7. (14 August 2015). "French Facial Expressions".
  8. (October 13, 2021). "Peter Rhodes on a cheesy lesson, the Gallic shrug and waiting for the male of the species to improve". [[shropshirestar.com]].
  9. (May 16, 2011). "Letter From Paris: A Gallic Shrug for DSK". Vox Media, LLC.
  10. (January 4, 2019). "How the French Speak With Their Hands".
  11. "The Language".
  12. "Shrug Emoji".
  13. "Shrug Emoticon".

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gestureshuman-communication