Dictionary Definition
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" [syn: crisp,
curt, laconic]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From the year 1599 from ters ("clean") from from the adjective tersus ("neat", "spruce") the past participle of tergo/tergeo ("to rub", "to wipe", "to cleanse").Adjective
- In the context of "of speech or style": Brief, concise, to the
point.
- He gave a terse, one-word answer.
- Abruptly or brusquely short.
Translations
a concise style or speech
- Icelandic: stuttur og gagnorður , stutt og gagnorð , stutt og gagnyrt ; stuttur og laggóður , stutt og laggóð , stutt og laggott
- Japanese: 簡明な
abruptly or brusquely short
- Japanese: ぶっきらぼうな
Italian
Verb
terse- Form of Third-person singular past historic, tergere
terse
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Attic,
Ciceronian, Spartan, abbreviated, abridged, abrupt, aphoristic, aposiopestic, axiomatic, bluff, blunt, brief, brusque, chaste, classic, clear, clear-cut, clipped, close, close-tongued, closemouthed, compact, compendious, compressed, concentrated, concise, condensed, contracted, crisp, curt, cut, direct, distilled, docked, dumb, easy, economical of words, elegant, elliptic, epigrammatic, finished, formulaic, formulistic, gnomic, graceful, gracile, gruff, incisive, indisposed to talk,
laconic, lean, limpid, lucid, mum, mute, natural, neat, pellucid, perspicuous, petulant, pithy, plain, platitudinous, pointed, polished, precise, proverbial, pruned, pungent, pure, quiet, refined, reserved, restrained, round, rude, sententious, short, short and sweet, shortened, silent, simple, snug, sparing of words, speechless, straightforward,
succinct, summary, synopsized, taciturn, tart, tasteful, taut, tight, tight-lipped, to the point,
tongue-tied, trim, truncated, unaffected, ungracious, unlabored, unloquacious, untalkative, word-bound,
wordless