hold no brief for (someone or something)

To be unable or unwilling to tolerate or support someone or something. The senator has stated numerous times that he holds no brief for the "rights" of big corporations. The boss holds no brief for slackers. I hold no brief for people who can't keep their word. If you don't take the things you say seriously, why should I?

See also: brief, for, hold, no

hold no brief for someone or something

not to tolerate someone or something; to be opposed to someone or something. I hold no brief for Wally and his friends. Rachel holds no brief for that kind of thing.

See also: brief, for, hold, no

hold no brief for

Refuse to support, dislike, as in I hold no brief for liars. This term is a negative version of the legal expression hold a brief for, meaning "to support or defend a position by argument." The noun brief has been used in this way since the 1200s.

See also: brief, for, hold, no

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hold no brief for something

BRITISH, FORMAL

If you hold no brief for a person, organization, activity or belief, you do not support them or respect them. This newspaper holds no special brief for a committee that has done nothing to distinguish itself in the past. He holds no brief for formal education. Note: In law, a brief is all the papers relating to a particular client's case that are collected by the client's solicitor and given to the barrister who will represent them in court.

See also: brief, for, hold, no, something

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

hold no brief for

not support or argue in favour of.

The brief referred to is the summary of the facts and legal points in a case given to a barrister to argue in court.

See also: brief, for, hold, no

hold no ˈbrief for somebody/something

(formal) not be in favour of or not support somebody/something, for example a cause, an idea, etc: I hold no brief for long prison sentences but this terrible crime really deserves one.

Brief in this expression is the summary of facts and legal points in a case that is given to a lawyer to argue in a court. If a lawyer ‘holds no brief for’ a person, company, etc. this is not one of their clients/cases.

See also: brief, for, hold, no, somebody, something

hold no brief for, to

To refuse to endorse, support, or defend. The term comes from law, where to hold a brief for someone means to act as counsel for that person and to argue in his or her favor. The negative form of the expression became extremely common in the nineteenth century. The OED cites R. A. Knox writing in Spiritual Aeneid (1918): “When I was at Balliol we used to adopt the phrase ‘I hold no brief for so-and-so.’”