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Brief   /brif/   Listen
Brief

adjective
1.
Of short duration or distance.
2.
Concise and succinct.
3.
(of clothing) very short.  Synonym: abbreviated.  "A brief bikini"



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"Brief" Quotes from Famous Books



... stopped; and when he resumed he spoke without his former gaiety. Indeed, the change of note was more perceptible than the brief pause. His friend conjectured that the words which Linforth now used were not those which he had intended to speak ...
— The Broken Road • A. E. W. Mason

... The Leader, for March 20, 1852. Brief though it is, I place this essay before the rest, partly because with the exception of a similarly-brief essay on "Use and Beauty", it came first in order of time, but chiefly because it came first in order of thought, and struck the keynote of ...
— Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I • Herbert Spencer

... excused for getting sort of personal and reminiscent at this point I should like to make brief mention here of the finest music I ever heard. As it happened this was instrumental music. I had come to New York with a view to revolutionizing metropolitan journalism, and journalism had shown ...
— Cobb's Bill-of-Fare • Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb

... seemed an emblem of the grief and hope that burned together in her heart. So much did she suffer that, though her aspect had been quite youthful when her troubles began, she grew to look like an elderly person in a very brief time. She cared not how she was dressed, nor had she ever thought of flinging away the wreath of withered poppies which she put on the very morning of Proserpina's disappearance. She roamed about in so wild a way, and with her hair so dishevelled, that people took her for ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various

... of the Colony, Mr. Hutt, I wrote a brief report of my journey, which was forwarded, with a copy both of my own and Wylie's depositions, relative to the melancholy loss of my overseer on the 29th April. I then had my horses got up from the King's river, and left them in the care ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

... no time can I receive or answer objections with more benefit than now. From the hurry and pressure which unfortunately attend all my movements and doings I rarely have time to spare, in preparing for publication, to do more than give brief and unsatisfactory abstracts, which I fear ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume I (of II) • Charles Darwin

... peace as it will be promoted by the League, will have in numbers the constitutional requisite to favorable senatorial action. The captious may say that our platform reference to reservations is vague and indefinite. Its meaning, in brief, is that we shall state our interpretation of the covenant as a matter of good faith to our associates and as a precaution against any misunderstanding in the future. The point is, that after the people shall have spoken, the League will ...
— The Progressive Democracy of James M. Cox • Charles E. Morris

... imagination had presented Dickie as the inexperienced, tender-hearted, sweet-natured lad she had known and beguiled at Brockhurst four years earlier. As has already been stated her meetings with him, since then, had been brief and infrequent. Now she perceived that imagination had played a silly trick upon her. The boy she had left, the man who stood awaiting her so calmly were, save in one distressing peculiarity, two widely different persons. For in the interval Richard Calmady had eaten very freely of the fruit of ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet

... meant at the day of Christ's second coming, when all that are ungodly shall stand at the left hand of Christ, with pale faces and guilty consciences, with the vials of the Almighty's wrath ready to be poured out upon them. Thus much in brief touching the 19th verse. I might have observed other things from it, but now I forbear, having other things to speak of ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... mood is so called because it is chiefly used in commanding. It is that brief form of the verb, by which we directly urge upon others our claims and wishes. But the nature of this urging varies according to the relation of the parties. We command inferiors; exhort equals; entreat superiors; permit whom we will;—and ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... life there is not much to tell that I have not already told. He returned to America in the summer of 1860, and took up his abode in the house he had bought at Concord before going to Europe, and of which his occupancy had as yet been brief. He was to occupy it only four years. I have insisted upon the fact of his being an intense American, and of his looking at all things, during his residence in Europe, from the standpoint of that little clod of western earth which he carried about with him ...
— Hawthorne - (English Men of Letters Series) • Henry James, Junr.

... She stood straight and magnificent in body completely bare except for the brief apron at her loins. Between her beautiful full copper breasts there hung a gleaming piece of turquoise carved in the ...
— The Hohokam Dig • Theodore Pratt

... paralyzing self-consciousness. The little buzz of pleased conversation that followed each number of the program as the applause died down was gratifying without doubt, but the students cared more deeply for the President's brief nod and smile of satisfaction. After the exercises came the diplomas, those strips of sheepskin for which our girls had striven so long and valiantly. It was almost a shock to clasp at last that precious ...
— Molly Brown's Senior Days • Nell Speed

... make me go slowly, and not to judge. We all liked her, all learned to be glad that she had come. I asked no expression from her for several days. When I finally suggested something of the kind, I felt the sudden terror in the room. Her expression came in a very brief form, and it showed me the bewilderment with which she had encountered the new points of view in the Chapel. I learned afresh that one must not hurry; that my first work was to put to rest her fears of being called upon. I impressed upon the class the next ...
— Child and Country - A Book of the Younger Generation • Will Levington Comfort

... Brief was the duration of the friendship of the forerunner and the Messiah; but there are evidences that it was strong, deep, and true. There were several occasions on which this friendship proved its sincerity and ...
— Personal Friendships of Jesus • J. R. Miller

... sit in the rocking-chair and rest himsilf this avenin'," cried Mrs. O'Callaghan, returning to her cooking from a brief trip to the door. "It's Pat'll be bringin' home money the night; honest ...
— The Widow O'Callaghan's Boys • Gulielma Zollinger

... moment. He was just a bit nettled, too. Then he stood. And then, just in that brief interval, his lips tightened and his mouth looked just as it used to look in the old hoodlum days—rugged, strong. The one saving, hopeful feature which Mr. Ellsworth, his old scoutmaster, had banked upon then in that sooty, unkempt countenance. They ...
— Tom Slade's Double Dare • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... fruit of his extraordinary abilities, and is said to have originated in the sudden illness of a leading counsel the night before the trial of a complicated civil cause. It could not be put off, and the client of the lost leader was in despair, when Scott courageously took the brief, made himself in one night master of its voluminous intricacies, and triumphed. From this time he gained confidence, and his forensic reputation soon became established. He was much aided by the encouragement which he received from Lord Thurlow, who ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 20. No. 568 - 29 Sept 1832 • Various

... had brought the divisional surgeon with them, and he made his brief examination while the sergeant questioned Moira and myself. My story was the simple one that I had outlined, and I must say that Moira played up well to my lead. She was naturally upset at what she had gone through, and the sergeant, I fancy, made allowance for this, and attributed any trifling ...
— The Lost Valley • J. M. Walsh

... of the congressional district and the state. Volney Sprague's editorial occasioned some little paragraphing here and there among up-state newspapers and by brief mention in Associated Press despatches roused a metropolitan daily of opposite political faith to one of the satirical thrusts for which it was famous; whereupon one of its more serious contemporaries found a text for a thunderous jeremiad on the decay of political ...
— The Henchman • Mark Lee Luther

... Elizabeth remarked, after a brief pause. "She will not come to me; very well, I must go to her. ...
— The Tempting of Tavernake • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... brief summary of the doctrine of this philosopher, whose work is one of the most ancient that has survived to us. The subject on which he treated occupied in his time all men's minds: the poets sang of cosmogonies and theogonies, ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike

... former and causing the latter to rattle furiously; and I had barely time to rush and close them all when a terrific squall came roaring down upon the bungalow. This squall was only the precursor of several that followed each other at rapidly decreasing intervals until those intervals became so brief as to be no longer distinguishable, and the wind settled into a roaring gale from the westward that blew all night and did not break until ...
— The Strange Adventures of Eric Blackburn • Harry Collingwood

... performed with wonderful accuracy, giving the regiment the aspect of some peculiar piece of mechanism, and then the order was given, "Band to the front!" A brief pause, a sharp command or two, and then boom—boom—boom—boom, so many beats of the big drum, a crash from the brass instruments, which came echoing strangely back from the barrack walls, and away they went toward the gates, where ...
— The Queen's Scarlet - The Adventures and Misadventures of Sir Richard Frayne • George Manville Fenn

... occasional terms of truce; the most bitter and boisterous weather its hours of warmth and of calmness; and so was it with the matrimonial horizon of this amiable pair, which, usually cloudy, had now for brief space cleared up. The splendour of their new apparel, the mirth of the spectacle around them, with the aid, perhaps, of a bowl of muscadine quaffed by Raoul, and a cup of hippocras sipped by his wife, had rendered them rather more agreeable ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott

... than a sweet loveliness that had cloyed him presently. And when the chance was offered him by Bentinck and his father, he took it and went his ways, and this sweet flower that he had plucked from its Normandy garden to adorn him for a brief summer's day was left ...
— The Lion's Skin • Rafael Sabatini

... affection, but latterly Gladys had contented herself with commonplace scrawls announcing that this was where they were staying for a few days or that the window in the hotel marked with a cross was hers. And my replies, so conscientiously written every Saturday night, had become rather brief and formal statements of facts. I had long since ceased to take Miss Minion's stairs two steps at a time in my eagerness to secure the portly epistle from abroad; the post-card which had filled its place I regarded with languid interest. You can imagine, then, that it was with ...
— David Malcolm • Nelson Lloyd

... The following brief synopsis of Blake's life, differing, in some slight particulars, from Johnson's memoir, is taken from ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson

... made in very brief sentences, especially in advertisements: Tickets 25 cents. Price ...
— Punctuation - A Primer of Information about the Marks of Punctuation and - their Use Both Grammatically and Typographically • Frederick W. Hamilton

... blow at her. He, on his part, could hardly believe his eyes when he looked into her face. This was not the happy, care-free, girlish Jean Fitzpatrick, who had laughed her way through the brief summer months. He saw, now, the face of a woman, who had learned much and suffered much. There were gravity in the eyes and a seriousness across the brow that served as the badges of this new realization; but there was no fear. After the first shrinking of surprise, she looked him coldly ...
— The Wilderness Trail • Frank Williams

... her will, she did, and for one brief moment she was supremely happy. It was only, however, for a moment. Sent, apparently, by a very practical Providence to save her from herself, a young man blustered good-naturedly through the crowd and planted himself before her with a cheery aplomb which seemed to indicate ...
— The Grey Lady • Henry Seton Merriman

... the judge's anger was invariably justified. He never lost control of himself without some good excuse. Therefore they suffered patiently, knowing that they suffered justly, and knowing also that they would not suffer long; for the judge's outbursts were as brief as they were fierce, and he bore no malice afterwards. Doyle unfortunately did not know Sir Gilbert's peculiarities, and so he was depressed and unhappy. Sabina Gallagher did not know them either, and the judge ...
— The Simpkins Plot • George A. Birmingham

... the grass The overpow'ring light of gas, And through the lattice streaming; As wearily I close my eyes Brief are the moments that suffice To reach the land ...
— Poems - Vol. IV • Hattie Howard

... Brief reference must be made to the position of Tripoli. While Egypt was brought under British control and Tunisia became a French protectorate, Tripoli remained a province of the Turkish empire with undefined frontiers in the hinterland, a state of affairs which more than once threatened to lead to trouble ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... that, in a book which professes to show how an efficient government can be established and maintained by gentle measures, the subject of corporal punishment could have no place. It seems important, however, that there should be here introduced a brief though distinct presentation of the light in which, in a philosophical point of view, this instrumentality is ...
— Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young • Jacob Abbott

... cattle and tilled the ground, and, to some extent, indicated the rudimentary state of a pastoral and agricultural life; but, in every social change, the sports of the field maintained their place. After the expulsion of the Danes, and during the brief restoration of the Saxon monarchy, these were still followed: even Edward the Confessor, who would join in no other secular amusements, took the greatest delight, says William of Malmesbury, "to follow a pack of swift hounds ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton

... at brief notice, we were quietly entrained at Basingstoke and taken down to the docks at Devonport before anyone ...
— At Suvla Bay • John Hargrave

... your own day as a critic, it is as a poet and a writer of short tales that you must live. But to discuss your few and elaborate poems is a waste of time, so completely does your own brief definition of poetry, "the rhythmic creation of the beautiful," exhaust your theory, and so perfectly is the theory illustrated by the poems. Natural bent, and reaction against the example of Mr. Longfellow, combined to make you too ...
— Letters to Dead Authors • Andrew Lang

... and we hear from every quarter complaints of it. In Scotland the custom of recitation prevails, but multitudes besides Dr. Campbell[4] condemn it. In many parts of the continent of Europe no method is known, but that of a brief preparation and unpremeditated language; but that it should be universally approved by those who use it, is ...
— Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching • Henry Ware

... by this post a volume of the French translation of a collection of my essays about Darwinism and Evolution, 1860-76, for which I have written a brief preface. I was really proud of myself when I discovered on re-reading them that I ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3 • Leonard Huxley

... as brief was despatched in reply; and no one was the wiser except Blue Bonnet and Grandmother Clyde. Blue Bonnet was much elated. Telling bad news at long range was something she did not approve of, and it promised to be a ...
— Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party • C. E. Jacobs

... guilty passion, which she, in her gentle purity and holy strength, had scorned. She could not be deceived—the mystery that surrounded him was solved—antipathy explained; and Marie's earthly fate lay in Don Luis Garcia's hands! The Grand Inquisitor read in that glance that he was known; and for a brief minute a strange, an incomprehensible sensation, thrilled through him. It could scarcely have been fear, when one gesture of his hand would destine that frail being to torture, imprisonment, and death; and yet never before in his whole ...
— The Vale of Cedars • Grace Aguilar

... should set we planned to skirt the mountains under the cover of darkness, in desperate hope of finding somewhere food and water with which we could return to our boat and defy death by putting out to sea; but ere the brief twilight of the tropics had settled into night, Neddie Benson was writhing and groaning in mortal agony. We were alarmed, and for a time could think of no explanation; but after a while black Frank looked ...
— The Mutineers • Charles Boardman Hawes

... clothe, Nor would subject unto the pain and strife Of this, our frail and dreary life; Or if thou hast a mansion fair, Amid the boundless realms of space, That lighted is by a more genial sun, And breathest there a more benignant air; From here, where brief and wretched are our days, Receive thy humble lover's hymn ...
— The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi • Giacomo Leopardi

... minutes being very long, a brief abstract only, containing the principal points of evidence, ...
— The Eventful History Of The Mutiny And Piratical Seizure - Of H.M.S. Bounty: Its Cause And Consequences • Sir John Barrow

... Everything in the former place appeared to have been produced by the magic power of a fairy's wand. Not the slightest trace of all this splendour remains; the revolutionary spoilers even tore up the pipes which served to supply the fountains. Perhaps a brief description of this palace and the usages established there by Louis XIV. may ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... 1781, General Washington commenced a military journal. The following is a brief statement of the situation of the army at that time. "I begin at this epoch, a concise journal of military transactions, &c. I lament not having attempted it from the commencement of the war in aid of my memory: and wish the multiplicity of ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 3 (of 5) • John Marshall

... head to let the black flood flow over Him. Note that Christ brands enmity to Him as the high-water mark of sin, the crucial instance of man's darkness, the worst thing ever done. Mark the assurance that animated Him, that the eclipse was but for an 'hour.' The victory of the darkness was brief, and it led to the eternal triumph of the Light. By dying He is the death of death. This Jonah inflicts deadly wounds on the monster in whose maw He lay for three days. The power of darkness was shivered to atoms in the moment ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... pick, one water canteen, one broken telescope, three emu eggs, some girths and straps, one shoeing hammer, one pound of candles, and left a lantern hanging on a tree. A bottle was also buried, with a letter in it, giving the latitude and longitude of the camp, and a brief outline of our former and future intended movements. We reached the rock holes about North-East twenty miles, and were delighted to see them full, besides plenty on the rocks. This was very encouraging, and after resting two hours we pushed on East-North-East, to a range visited by ...
— Explorations in Australia • John Forrest

... length, will, by the animal's whisking it towards his sides, prove inconvenient, to the fair rider, at all times; but, especially so, in dirty weather. Neither of these appendages, however, on the other hand, should be ungracefully brief ...
— The Young Lady's Equestrian Manual • Anonymous

... be troubled! Few and brief His days were here, yet rich in love and faith: Lord, we believe, help thou our unbelief, And grant thy servants such a life ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various

... his father. Constanze seems to have been made for Mozart; they went through the years of their brief wedded life like ...
— Mozart: The Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his own Words • Friedrich Kerst and Henry Edward Krehbiel

... done by you, by whom was it done?" urged Mr Trevor. "If you make no reply to that, I must throw up my brief." ...
— The Poacher - Joseph Rushbrook • Frederick Marryat

... made clear in the campaign. No one would wish to minimize the unusual abilities of Mr. Hughes, but they are the abilities of an adroit lawyer. He makes "points." He pleases those minds which like cleverness and finesse. He deals with international affairs like an astute lawyer drawing a brief. But has he ever quickened the nation's pulse or stirred its heart by a single utterance? Did he ever make any one feel that behind the formalities of law, civil or international, he detected the heartbeats ...
— Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him • Joseph P. Tumulty

... brief remnant all be thine; And when thy sure decree Bids me this fleeting breath resign, O ...
— Hymns for Christian Devotion - Especially Adapted to the Universalist Denomination • J.G. Adams

... There he reported the facts, directed police and labourers where to find the body and where to carry it, and subsequently rode swiftly back to Chagford. Arrived at the market-place, he acquainted Abraham Chown, the representative of the Devon constabulary, with his news, and finally writing a brief statement at the police station before leaving it, Grimbal ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts

... ready to hear you; but, as there are nine persons to follow, I must request you to be brief. ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... supposed that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. They were both dressed and came on deck leisurely. William T. Stead, the London journalist, wandered on deck for a few minutes, stopping to talk to Frank Millet. "What do they say is the trouble?" he asked. "Icebergs," was the brief reply. "Well," said Stead, "I guess it is nothing serious. I'm going back to ...
— Sinking of the Titanic - and Great Sea Disasters • Various

... voices, and "shouted greatly." The magistrate then brought up the confession of his wife against him, and expostulated with him for not confessing; the afflicted, in the mean while, bringing the whole machinery of their convulsions, shrieks, and uproar to bear against him: but he calmly, and in brief terms, ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham

... White Horse inn at the corner of Lord Holland's Lane and there enjoyed "his favourite dish—a fillet of veal—his bottle, and perhaps a friend." His married life was of very short duration, only three years, but his brief residence at Holland House has added to its associations more richly than all the names of preceding times. Addison had attempted from the first to influence the young Earl, whose stepfather he became, and some of his letters to the ...
— The Kensington District - The Fascination of London • Geraldine Edith Mitton

... still more violent proposals brought forward in the Duke's counsels, by such as are more hostile to your Majesty. And I need scarce remind your Majesty, that the more direct and more violent suggestions find readiest acceptance with our master, who loves brief and dangerous measures better than those that are safe, but ...
— Quentin Durward • Sir Walter Scott

... the Upon independence in 1960, the former French region of Middle Congo became the Republic of the Congo. A quarter century of experimentation with Marxism was abandoned in 1990 and a democratically elected government installed in 1992. A brief civil war in 1997 restored former Marxist President SASSOU-NGUESSO, but ushered in a period of ethnically based unrest. Southern-based rebel groups agreed to a final peace accord in March 2003. The Republic of Congo is one of Africa's largest ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... you the bright vision of the educational activities of our Western Provinces, and, with that vision, I hope, the sunny and breezy atmosphere of new and progressive ideas. I will limit my present remarks to a brief sketch of what was known in Saskatchewan as the "Better School Movement." This educational movement has an interesting history and carries with it a very profitable lesson. As the object of this Conference is to forward ...
— Catholic Problems in Western Canada • George Thomas Daly

... been said in her praise, and we, in this brief article, have summoned together witnesses to the extent of her powers, which are fit and not few. Yet we are aware that to a class of readers Miss Austen's novels must ever remain sealed books. So be it. While the English language is ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., February, 1863, No. LXIV. • Various

... the beginning of a country profile contains a brief summary of the background information necessary to understand the current situation in a country. The entry appears for only a few countries at the present time, but may be added to more countries ...
— The 1998 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... remarkable conscientiousness with which she set about her task. It would have been possible, with so much fame behind her, to have secured an equal success, and certainly an equal pecuniary reward, had she merely written a brief monograph with such material as was voluntarily placed in her hands. Mrs. Gaskell possessed a higher ideal of a biographer's duties. She spared no pains to find out the facts; she visited every spot associated with the name of ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter

... was effected Tom wrote home to his sisters, giving them a brief account of what had taken place since the letter he had posted to them before starting for the mountains, but saying very little of their adventures with Indians. "I am afraid you have been in a ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty

... right way, he felt. His father would have called the sheriff to the door, in a similar situation, and after one brief challenge they would have gone for their guns. But there was another way, and that was the way of the Colbys. Their way was right. They lived like gentlemen, and, above all, they fought ...
— Black Jack • Max Brand

... be able to prepare a record of the private and personal history of the founding of our System of Public Education, and of the vicissitudes through which it passed, as requested by Dr. Ryerson (page 350), yet in this chapter I give a brief outline of the principles ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson

... will find a brief argument in favor of conventions—and although I wrote it myself I will say to you that it is conclusive upon the point and can not be reasonably answered. The right way for you to do is hold your meeting and appoint delegates ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... Bonny Lass at the time that she so regrettably lost her passengers overboard. He too had been at Leeward Island, and may have somewhat wondered and questioned as to the happenings during the brig's brief stay there. He saw and recognized his old skipper hobbling along the Bristol quays, and perhaps from pity took the shabby creature home with him. Hopperdown dealt in sailors' slops, and had a snug room or two behind the shop. Here for a while the former ...
— Spanish Doubloons • Camilla Kenyon

... constant reference to the detail given. As some evil chance willed, the narrative mentioned by name several of the regiments engaged; but when it came to describe the forlorn hope at "V" Beach, it dealt fully with the special difficulties, and said in brief but emphatic phrase, "Here the troops wrought miracles." The War Office, in editing the despatch for publication, suppressed the schedule, as likely to give information to the enemy, so that in this case it did not appear to ...
— John Redmond's Last Years • Stephen Gwynn

... determined to avail themselves of their suitability during the brief stay which Mr. Tisdall had promised; the consequence was, that they shut themselves up in Sir Arthur's private room for nearly all the day and the greater part of the night, during the space of nearly a week, at the end of ...
— The Purcell Papers - Volume II. (of III.) • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

... ants ever preparing their meat in the summer, and ingenious bees continually fabricating cells of honey.... And to pay due regard to truth ... although they lately at the eleventh hour have entered the Lord's vineyard ..., they have added more in this brief hour to the stock of the sacred books than all the other vinedressers; following in the footsteps of Paul, the last to be called but the first in preaching, who spread the gospel of Christ more widely than ...
— The Care of Books • John Willis Clark

... rushed to the doctor's seat and whispered a brief message. The occupant rose at once and both men left the orchestra hastily and made ...
— More Toasts • Marion Dix Mosher

... in shot through both thighs. I did not know his name, but had heard his voice among the worshipers in the church-tent at Bristoe Station, and knew that he was a man of God. After a brief examination, the surgeon announced that ...
— In The Ranks - From the Wilderness to Appomattox Court House • R. E. McBride

... widow returned to me, with a composed manner and a quiet smile. The meeting with Mr. Keller seemed to have been completely dismissed from her thoughts, in the brief interval since ...
— Jezebel • Wilkie Collins

... of 1880 to Miss Strentzel, the daughter of a Polish physician who had come out in the great stampede of 1849 to California, but had found his gold in oranges, lemons and apricots on a great fruit ranch at Martinez, California. A brief letter from Muir told of his marriage, with just one note in it, the depth of joy and peace of which I could fathom, knowing him so well. Then no word of him until the monthly mailboat came in September. As I stood on the wharf with the rest of the Wrangell ...
— Alaska Days with John Muir • Samual Hall Young

... lawyer, addressing the jury to whom the opposing counsel had reflected upon inaccuracies in the spelling of his brief—"anybody can write English correctly, but surely a man may be allowed to spell a word in two or three different ways if he likes!" This was a claim for independence of action which so commended itself to the jury that it won a verdict for his client. The same plea ...
— English as She is Wrote - Showing Curious Ways in which the English Language may be - made to Convey Ideas or obscure them. • Anonymous

... Virgil alone, but I know that I shall enjoy especially the companionship and comment of one with whom I have had such satisfaction of comradeship in our journey as neighbors for a little way across this earth. I invite others, and I hope they may be many, to make this brief journey with us, not because I know specifically what Dr. Slattery will say along the way, but because whatever he says out of his deep and reverent acquaintance with the Divine Comedy will help us all who follow him, whether we are of ...
— Dante: "The Central Man of All the World" • John T. Slattery

... whole days wandering about in the park in agony of soul. They had one brief month in which to decide the question—the question of life or death to the possible child. Truly here, once more, was an issue to which Thyrsis might apply ...
— Love's Pilgrimage • Upton Sinclair

... bringing them to reason, intreating them not to forfeit their character by such shameful conduct. But when some of the ringleaders declared with oaths that they would have a boat, and would take one, he quietly said, "You will, will you?"—gave a brief order to Captain Boys, of the marines, and sprang to the cabin for his sword. The marines, who had previously withstood every attempt of the conspirators to seduce them from their duty, now displayed that unwavering loyalty, and prompt obedience, for which, in the most trying circumstances, ...
— The Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth • Edward Osler

... the wishes of the family as to the form of service, the hymns or music, and remarks. The funeral service should be brief, and preferably a ritual service with no sermon or eulogy. The last are usually harrowing to the feelings of the mourners, and there should be every reasonable effort made to relieve the tension of the occasion, for the sake ...
— The Etiquette of To-day • Edith B. Ordway

... these ceremonies are services of God, which merit the remission of sins for themselves and for others. For on this account they increase these ceremonies. But if they would undertake them in order to teach and exhort the hearers, brief and pointed lessons would be of more profit than these infinite babblings. Thus the entire monastic life is full of hypocrisy and false opinions [against the First and Second Commandments, against Christ]. To all these this danger also is added, that those who ...
— The Apology of the Augsburg Confession • Philip Melanchthon

... that overtook Frances Howard and Rochester, and with them Anne Turner and many another, is to be properly understood, a brief word on the political situation in England at this time will be needed—or, rather, a word on the political ...
— She Stands Accused • Victor MacClure

... ivory, wax, indigo, skins, &c. &c. Nearly half of the commerce with this important country consists of legitimate articles of trade and barter. This is very encouraging, and the brief history of some of these objects of legal commerce is exceedingly interesting. Wax, for example, began to be sent seventeen years ago; elephants' teeth, fifteen; and indigo, only ...
— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 1 • James Richardson

... came a strange confusion; and the more the master thought, the more he was perplexed to know whether she had waked him, sleeping, as he sat on the stone, from some frightful dream, such as may come in a very brief slumber, or whether she had bewitched him into a trance with those strange eyes of hers, or whether it was all true, and he must solve its ...
— Elsie Venner • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... emulous in rank, Pressing through days and nights with hugest toil For summits of power and mastery of the world. O wretched minds of men! O blinded hearts! In how great perils, in what darks of life Are spent the human years, however brief!— O not to see that nature for herself Barks after nothing, save that pain keep off, Disjoined from the body, and that mind enjoy Delightsome feeling, far from care and fear! Therefore we see that our corporeal life Needs little, altogether, and only such As takes the pain away, and can ...
— Of The Nature of Things • [Titus Lucretius Carus] Lucretius

... Joel's agony as he picked himself up and limped back to his place. It was a heart-tearing, blinding sensation that left him weak and limp. But there was nothing for it save to go on and try to retrieve his fatal error. The white face of Story turned toward him, and Joel read in the brief glance no anger, only an almost tearful grief. He swung upon his heel with a muttered word that sounded ill from his lips. But he was only a boy and the provocation was great; let us not remember it ...
— The Half-Back • Ralph Henry Barbour

... not love at first sight between these two, it must have been nearly that. Liszt came to Kiew in February, 1847. The same month Carolyne invited him to visit her at one of her country seats, Woronince. Brief correspondence already had passed between them. To his fifth note he adds, as a postscript, "I am in the best of humor . . . and find, now that the world contains Woronince, that the world ...
— The Loves of Great Composers • Gustav Kobb

... A brief whispered colloquy with his editor quickly smoothed the perplexity from Brennan's face. McAllister had picked up Pardeau on the street and had sent a belated message to the office. It was a big "story" that ...
— Every Man for Himself • Hopkins Moorhouse

... Cairo on account of its execrable golf- links. He lived only to enjoy himself. His view was that of a boy, hearty and healthy and seeking only excitement and mischief. She had heard his tales of his brief career at Harvard, of the reunions at Henry's American bar, of the Futurity, the Suburban, the Grand Prix, of a yachting cruise which apparently had encountered every form of adventure, from the rescuing of a stranded opera-company to the ...
— Ranson's Folly • Richard Harding Davis

... of Congress, which had been convened by General Harrison before his death, was not acceptable to his successor, who saw that its legislation would be inspired and controlled by Henry Clay. When the two houses were organized, he sent them a brief message, in which the national bank question was dexterously handled, "with the caution and ambiguity of a Talleyrand." Mr. Clay lost no time in presenting his programme for Congressional action; and in a few days its first feature, the repeal of the sub- ...
— Perley's Reminiscences, Vol. 1-2 - of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis • Benjamin Perley Poore

... this new party, her ladyship treated him to a brief examination, but evidently approving of him, began to sing ...
— The Angel of the Tenement • George Madden Martin

... a brief account of London from this map. The original is the property of the Corporation and is kept in the Guildhall Library. A ...
— The History of London • Walter Besant

... saw in his mind's eye, in that brief but unpleasant hustling he had to go through at the hands of the ungenerous ...
— Jack Harkaway and his son's Escape From the Brigand's of Greece • Bracebridge Hemyng

... the Deputy-Governor that two companies of troops that had remained in Virginia ever since the Rebellion, could no longer be maintained at the expense of the royal Exchequer. Since many of the Burgesses were already on their way to Jamestown, Sir Henry decided to hold a brief session, in order to permit them, if they so desired, to continue the companies at the charge of the colony.[919] But he expressed his determination, in obedience to the King's commands, to forbid the consideration of any other ...
— Virginia under the Stuarts 1607-1688 • Thomas J. Wertenbaker

... shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. For a brief moment I hesitated—I trembled. Unsheathing my rapier, I began to grope with it about the recess; but the thought of an instant reassured me. I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. X (of X) - America - II, Index • Various

... blood-guilt against any of the maidens of the city. Then, on the fourth night, she related to him a still more extraordinary adventure, and on the fifth night she told him anecdotes of Kings and Wazirs and Notables. Brief, she ceased not to entertain him many days and nights, while the king said to himself, "Whenas I shall have heard the end of the tale, I will do her die," and the people redoubled their marvel and admiration. Also, the folk of the circuits and cities heard of this thing, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... shall [of] their purpose fail. If Malvern Hills should on thy shoulders light, They shall not hurt them, nor suppress thy might. If Bevis of Hampton, Colburn, and Guy, Will thee assay, set not by them a fly! To be brief, this habergin shall thee save Both by land and water; now play the lusty knave. [Then he goeth into his ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume I. • R. Dodsley

... studied historic setting to the figure of the lad who passes from the vineyard to the service of Josephus, becomes the leader of a guerrilla band of patriots, fights bravely for the Temple, and after a brief term of slavery at Alexandria, returns to his Galilean home with ...
— Captain Bayley's Heir: - A Tale of the Gold Fields of California • G. A. Henty

... This brief abstract applies to plants alone: some strictly analogous facts could be given on the distribution of terrestrial animals. In marine productions, similar cases occur; as an example, I may quote a remark by the highest authority, Prof. Dana, that "it ...
— On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection • Charles Darwin

... and American possession is unselfishly interested in the success of this Exposition. However, in connection with what New York is expected to do for this grand enterprise, you will pardon, I know, this very brief reference I make to New York's supremacy in population, in wealth, in manufactures and in commerce. I think it less than twenty years ago that New York was ahead in agricultural productions, too. Agricultural supremacy has been tending ...
— New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 - Report of the New York State Commission • DeLancey M. Ellis

... A brief survey of the more important of these new agencies will indicate how they affect the relations of the farmer to his community and to other communities. These may be considered under the two general heads of means of ...
— The Farmer and His Community • Dwight Sanderson

... give you some brief directions, concerning the method and course I wish you to pursue, in reading the Holy Scriptures. May you be enabled to make the best use of this most precious gift of God—this sacred treasure of knowledge!—May ...
— The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant • John Hamilton Moore

... brief moment he held her, straining her limp body to his. The hands relaxed and fell away from her pallid face, and the bearded lips bent close above the soft lips of the unconscious girl—but only ...
— The Promise - A Tale of the Great Northwest • James B. Hendryx

... to find any true parallel to the case of the Homeric poems. These poems must be studied in themselves, without looking for aid, in this sense, to the comparative method." [Footnote: Homer, p. 135.] Part of this conclusion seems to us rather hasty. In a brief manual Sir Richard had not space for a thorough comparative study of old heroic poetry at large. His quoted sources are: for India, Lassen; for France, Mr. Saintsbury's Short History of FRENCH LITERATURE (sixteen pages on this topic), and a work unknown to me, by "M. Paul"; for ...
— Homer and His Age • Andrew Lang

... however, relates only to each individual kind of sight. Today I will explain briefly how those sights are made use of in your daily work at sea. Such an explanation necessarily cannot include the navigator's work under all conditions and on all classes of ships. It merely gives a brief outline of and a few suggestions relating to navigating conditions on board a medium-sized transport, in time of war. I say "in time of war" because navigating then is different, to some extent, from the ordinary routine in time ...
— Lectures in Navigation • Ernest Gallaudet Draper

... of the peril to which they were exposed were to be accused of being the cause of that peril. It was a brilliant and telling retort upon those who charged him with having stirred up a seditious movement for his own personal ends. But his best speech at St. James's Hall was a brief and unpremeditated utterance at the close of the meeting. Mr. Ayrton, the well-known member for the Tower Hamlets, an advanced Radical, and a man who subsequently made himself notorious as a Minister ...
— Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 • Stuart J. Reid, ed.

... be greeted with such a warm welcome that he hardly knew what to say and had to hide his embarrassment by poking the baby's ribs to make him laugh. Jimmy Hunt had followed him into the room and listened with open mouth as well as ears to the brief story that the boy told in reply to ...
— The Bishop's Shadow • I. T. Thurston

... at the brief words of praise, which meant so much coming from Stonewall Jackson, and saluting again hurried to his immediate command. Already the messengers were flying to the different regiments, bidding them to be up and march ...
— The Scouts of Stonewall • Joseph A. Altsheler

... dinner, and then our company all broke up, and to my chamber to do several things. Among other things, to write a letter to my Lord Sandwich, it being one of the burdens upon my mind that I have not writ to him since he went into Spain, but now I do intend to give him a brief account of our whole year's actions since he went, which will make amends. My wife well home in the evening from the play; which I was glad of, it being cold and dark, and she having her necklace of pearl on, and none but Mercer with her. Spent the evening in fitting my books, to ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... wrecks of the once invincible Minoan fleet driven ashore in hopeless ruin in the shallow bay, like the Athenian fleet at Syracuse, the swift march of the mainland conquerors up the valley, the brief, desperate resistance of the palace guards, and then the horrors of the sack, and the long column of flushed victors winding down to their ships, laden with booty, and driving with them crowds of captive women. Similar scenes must have been enacted at Phaestos and Hagia Triada, either by ...
— The Sea-Kings of Crete • James Baikie

... various writings to order and intelligibility. We were soon to learn that a scrap of music set down within three or four minutes was to require as many hours for revision, emendation, elucidation—for editing, in brief. It is but fair, however, to state that some of this time was taken up by the registering of irrelevant messages from other quarters and by digressions toward the Composer's own ...
— The Shadow World • Hamlin Garland

... was one of great joy and thanksgiving to us all.—After a little rest and refreshment, he gave us a brief ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox



Words linked to "Brief" :   short, brevity, synopsis, concise, official document, instrument, instruct, legal instrument, briefness, precis, outline, legal document, apprise, jurisprudence, abbreviated, law, abstract, in brief, apprize



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