Apedia

Briːf Life Short Adjective Bre Visit/Meeting/Conversation Pause/Silence Mozart's

Word brief
WordType (adjective)
Phonetic BrE / briːf / NAmE / briːf /
Example
  • a brief visit/meeting/conversation
  • a brief pause/silence
  • mozart's life was brief.
  • a brief description/summary/account
Sound Native audio playback is not supported.
Image
Search images by the word
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1280&bih=661&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=brief
Content

brief

(adjective)BrE / briːf / NAmE / briːf /
  1. lasting only a short time; short
    • a brief visit/meeting/conversation
    • a brief pause/silence
    • Mozart's life was brief.
  2. using few words
    • a brief description/summary/account
    • Please be brief (= say what you want to say quickly).
  3. short and not covering much of the body
    • See related entries: Describing clothes
      https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/topic/describing_clothes/brief
    • a brief skirt
  4. in a few words, without details
    • In brief, the meeting was a disaster.
    • Now the rest of the news in brief.

    Extra Examples

    • Could you make it brief? I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes.
    • I promised to be brief.
    • The diary entries were tantalizingly brief.
    • The wait was mercifully brief, little more than an hour.
    • This necessarily brief account concentrates on two main areas.
    • David gave me a brief summary of what was said at the meeting.
    • He began with a brief introduction.
    • Mozart’s life was brief.
    • Please be brief.
    • Saunders’s lawyer made a brief statement to the press outside the court.
    • Sean gave a brief glance at the screen.
    • The author makes only a brief mention of the role of Japan in this period.
    • The leaflet provides a brief description of the changes to the benefits system.
    • The prime minister is due to make a brief visit to South Korea.
    • There was a brief silence after I made my announcement.

    Word Origin

    • Middle English: from Old French brief, from Latin brevis ‘short’. The noun is via late Latin breve ‘note, dispatch’, hence ‘an official letter’.
Copyright This card's content is collected from the following dictionaries: Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Tags: b

Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.

Next card: Briefly ˈbriːfli adverb bre spoken emma met john

Previous card: Bridge brɪdʒ river cross part noun bre crossed

Up to card list: [English] The Oxford 3000 Most Important Words