brief

From Middle English breef, breve, bref, from Old French brief, bref, from Latin brevis (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short, brief”). Doublet of merry.

• enPR: brēf, IPA^(key): /bɹiːf/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iːf

brief (comparative briefer or more brief, superlative briefest or most brief)

1. Of short duration; happening quickly. [from 15th c.]

   Her reign was brief but spectacular.

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Some, how briefe the Life of man / runs his erring pilgrimage, / That the ſtretching of a ſpan, / buckles in his ſumme of age.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎:

     That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.

2. Concise; taking few words. [from 15th c.]

   His speech of acceptance was brief but moving.

   • a. 1637, Ben Jonson, “Discoveries”, in The Works of Ben Jonson, volume 2, London: Richard Bishop, published 1641:

     The briefe ſtyle is that which expreſſeth much in little.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.

   • 2005 May 23, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism‎, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 182:

     If Demandt's essay served as a strident example of the German desire for normalcy, a more subtle example was provided by a brief allohistorical depiction of a Nazi victory in World War II written by German historian Michael Salewski in 1999.

3. Occupying a small distance, area or spatial extent; short. [from 17th c.]

   Her skirt was extremely brief but doubtless cool.

   • 1983, Robert Drewe, The Bodysurfers, Penguin, published 2009, page 17:

     On the beach he always wore a straw hat with a red band and a brief pair of leopard print trunks.

4. (obsolete) Rife; common; prevalent.

• See also Thesaurus:ephemeral
• See also Thesaurus:concise

• briefen
• briefly

• brevity
• brevitic

brief (plural briefs)

1. (law) A writ summoning one to answer; an official letter or mandate.
2. (law) An answer to any action.
   • 1996, Japanese Rules of Civil Procedure, Article 79, Section 1:

     A written answer or any other brief shall be submitted to the court while allowing a period necessary for the opponent to make preparations with regard to the matters stated therein.

3. (law) A memorandum of points of fact or of law for use in conducting a case.
4. (by extension, figurative) A position of interest or advocacy.
   • 1894 August 18, “The First Divorce of Henry VIII [book review]”, in The Speaker, volume 10, page 192:

     Mrs. Hope was, we believe, a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, and neither she nor her editor conceals the fact that they hold a brief for the Pope and for Catharine against Henry VIII.

5. (law) An attorney's legal argument in written form for submission to a court.
6. (English law) The material relevant to a case, delivered by a solicitor to the barrister who is counsel for the case.
7. (English law, slang) A barrister who is counsel for a party in a legal action.
8. A short news story or report.

   We got a news brief.

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     Hie good ſir Mighell, beare this ſealed briefe / With winged haſte to the Lord Marſhall / This to my cooſen Scroope, and all the reſt / To whom they are directed.

9. (usually in the plural) underwear briefs.

   I wear boxers under trousers but for sports I usually wear a brief.

10. (obsolete) A summary, précis or epitome; an abridgement or abstract.
    • 1589, Thomas Nashe, The Anatomie of Absurditie‎:

      […] euen ſo it fareth with mee, who béeing about to anatomize Abſurditie, am vrged to take a view of ſundry mens vanitie, a ſuruey of their follie, a briefe of their barbariſme […]

    • a. 1613, Sir Thomas Overbury, “A Wife”, in The Miscellaneous Works in Verse and Prose of Sir Thomas Overbury, Knt. with Memoir of his Life, 10th edition, London: W. Owen, published 1756, page 23:

      EACH woman is a brief of womankind, / And doth in little e’en as much contain, / As in one day and night all life we find ; / Of either more is but the ſame again […]

11. (UK, historical) A letter patent, from proper authority, authorizing a collection or charitable contribution of money in churches, for any public or private purpose.
12. (slang) A ticket of any type.[1][2]

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “brief”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

brief (third-person singular simple present briefs, present participle briefing, simple past and past participle briefed)

1. (transitive) To summarize a recent development to some person with decision-making power.

   The U.S. president was briefed on the military coup and its implications on African stability.

   • 2021 October 20, Industry Insider, “The wheels turn slowly”, in RAIL, number 942, page 68:

     It is being briefed that Southeastern operations will return to the private sector, and that use of the Operator of Last Resort team will be a temporary arrangement.

2. (transitive, law) To write a legal argument and submit it to a court.

• debrief

brief (comparative more brief, superlative most brief)

1. (obsolete, poetic) Briefly.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 115:

     Whence Adam faultring long, thus anſwer’d brief.

2. (obsolete, poetic) Soon; quickly.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], lines 173–175:

     But that a ioy paſt ioy, calls out on me, / It were a griefe, to briefe to part with thee : / Farewell.

• briefing
• brevity

• “brief”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “brief”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “brief”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• FBIer, fiber, fibre

From Dutch brief, from Middle Dutch brief, from Old Dutch [Term?], from Latin brevis.

• IPA^(key): /brif/

• Audio

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brief (plural briewe)

1. letter (written message)

From Middle Dutch brief, from Old Dutch [Term?], borrowed from Latin brevis (“short”).[1]

• IPA^(key): /brif/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: brief
• Rhymes: -if

brief f (plural brieven, diminutive briefje n)

1. letter (written message)

• Afrikaans: brief
• Berbice Creole Dutch: brifu
• Negerhollands: brief, brif
• → Papiamentu: brifi (dated)
• → Sranan Tongo: brifi
  • → Aukan: biifi
  • → Kari'na: brifi
  • → Saramaccan: biífi

From Old French brief.

brief m (feminine singular briefve, masculine plural briefs, feminine plural briefves)

1. brief; short

• French: bref

• bref

From Latin brevis.

brief m (oblique and nominative feminine singular brieve)

1. brief, short in length

• briement

brief oblique singular, m (oblique plural briés, nominative singular briés, nominative plural brief)

1. (short) letter or statement
   • c. 1170, Wace, Le Roman de Rou‎:

     A li brief al Conte enveié.

     He sent the letter to the Count.

• Middle French: brief
  • French: bref
• → Middle English: bref, breef, breve, brefe, breefe
  • English: brief, breve
  • Scots: brief, brieve, breef, briefe