From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmake short work of (doing) somethingmake short work of (doing) somethingFINISH DOING somethingto finish something quickly and easily, especially food or a job The kids made short work of the sandwiches. Computers can make short work of complex calculations. → short
Examples from the Corpus
make short work of (doing) something• The second game we pull away early and make short work of it.• Carmen would have made short work of Michael too.• These cannibalistic tadpoles make short work of one of their siblings.• It made short work of our Windows performance tests, WinTach, clocking up an impressive index of over 9.3.• It is fair to warn anglers that thousands of crabs soon make short work of rag and lugworm.• Fourth placed Guisborough made short work of the opposition at Saltburn.• Guernsey made short work of the opposition when they won the event on home soil in 1990.• He made short work of the remainder of his lunch, pushed his chair from the table, and stood up. 