Crossword clues for terseness
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Terse \Terse\, a. [Compar. Terser; superl. Tersest.] [L. tersus, p. p. of tergere to rub or wipe off.]
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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. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons. [R. & Obs.] ``Your polite and terse gallants.''
--Massinger.-
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.'' [1913 Webster] It differs from concise in not implying, perhaps, quite as much condensation, but chiefly in the additional idea of ``grace or elegance.'' [1913 Webster] -- Terse"ly, adv. -- Terse"ness, n.
Wiktionary
n. The characteristic of being terse.
WordNet
n. a neatly short and concise expressive style [ant: verboseness]
Usage examples of "terseness".
The manner of language, of style and of expression has considerably changed since then, the old abstruse complex sentence with its hidden meanings has been relegated to the shade, there is little of prolixity or long-drawn-out phrases, ambiguity of expression is avoided and the aim is toward terseness, brevity and clearness.
None of the stories are precisely those of Aesop, and none have the concinnity, terseness, and unmistakable deduction of the lesson intended to be taught by the fable, so conspicuous in the great Greek fabulist.
As they walked out of the Circus side by side Smiley wished the janitors good night with unusual terseness, and in the pub in Wardour Street he said 'I've been sacked,' and that was all.
Thus, to explain extraordinary terseness, these two days of muted apparel so unstylishly clothing honourable Kruppe, worse indeed than a shroud of despond.