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Definitions for: Terse
[adj] brief and to the point; effectively cut short; "a crisp retort"; "a response so curt as to be almost rude"; "the laconic reply; `yes'"; "short and terse and easy to understand"
Webster (1913) Definition: Terse, a. [Compar. Terser; superl. Tersest.] [L.
tersus, p. p. of tergere to rub or wipe off.]
1. Appearing as if rubbed or wiped off; rubbed; smooth;
polished. [Obs.]
Many stones, . . . although terse and smooth, have
not this power attractive. --Sir T.
Browne.
2. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons. [R. & Obs.]
``Your polite and terse gallants.'' --Massinger.
3. Elegantly concise; free of superfluous words; polished to
smoothness; as, terse language; a terse style.
Terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence.
--Macaulay.
A poet, too, was there, whose verse Was tender,
musical, and terse. --Longfellow.
Syn: Neat; concise; compact.
Usage: Terse, Concise. Terse was defined by Johnson
``cleanly written'', i. e., free from blemishes, neat
or smooth. Its present sense is ``free from
excrescences,'' and hence, compact, with smoothness,
grace, or elegance, as in the following lones of
Whitehead:
``In eight terse lines has Ph[ae]drus told (So
frugal were the bards of old) A tale of goats;
and closed with grace, Plan, moral, all, in that
short space.'' It differs from concise in not
implying, perhaps, quite as much condensation, but
chiefly in the additional idea of ``grace or
elegance.'' -- Terse"ly, adv. -- Terse"ness, n.
Synonyms: concise, crisp, curt, laconic
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