brief

American  

[breef] / brif /

adjective

• briefer,
  comparative
• briefest
  superlative

1. lasting or taking a short time; of short duration.

   a brief walk; a brief stay in the country.

   Synonyms:

   transient, ephemeral, transitory, fleeting, short-lived

2. using few words; concise; succinct.

   a brief report on weather conditions.

   Synonyms:

   condensed, pithy, compact, terse

3. abrupt or curt.

4. scanty.

   a brief bathing suit.

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noun

• briefs
  plural

1. a short and concise statement or written item.

   Synonyms:

   abstract, epitome, précis, outline

2. an outline, the form of which is determined by set rules, of all the possible arguments and information on one side of a controversy.

   a debater's brief.

3. Law.

   1. a writ summoning one to answer to any action.

   2. a memorandum of points of fact or of law for use in conducting a case.

   3. a written argument submitted to a court.

   4. (in England) the material relevant to a case, delivered by a solicitor to the barrister who tries the case.

4. an outline, summary, or synopsis, as of a book.

5. (used with a plural verb) briefs, close-fitting, legless underpants with an elastic waistband.

6. a briefing.

7. Roman Catholic Church. a papal letter less formal than a bull, sealed with the pope's signet ring or stamped with the device borne on this ring.

8. British Theater. a free ticket; pass.

9. Obsolete. a letter.

verb (used with object)

• briefs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• briefed,
  past participle,  past
• briefing
  present participle

1. to make an abstract or summary of.

   Synonyms:

   outline, summarize

2. to instruct by a brief or briefing.

   They brief all the agents before assigning them.

3. Law. to retain as advocate in a suit.

idioms

1. in brief, in a few words; in short.

   The supervisor outlined in brief the duties of the new assistant.

2. hold a brief for, to support or defend by argument; endorse.

brief British  

/ briːf /

adjective

1. short in duration

   a brief holiday

2. short in length or extent; scanty

   a brief bikini

3. abrupt in manner; brusque

   the professor was brief with me this morning

4. terse or concise; containing few words

   he made a brief statement

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noun

1. a condensed or short statement or written synopsis; abstract

2. law a document containing all the facts and points of law of a case by which a solicitor instructs a barrister to represent a client

3. RC Church a letter issuing from the Roman court written in modern characters, as contrasted with a papal bull; papal brief

4. short for briefing

5. a paper outlining the arguments and information on one side of a debate

6. slang a lawyer, esp a barrister

7. to argue for; champion

8. in short; to sum up

verb

1. to prepare or instruct by giving a summary of relevant facts

2. to make a summary or synopsis of

3. English law

   1. to instruct (a barrister) by brief

   2. to retain (a barrister) as counsel

4. to supply potentially damaging or negative information regarding somone, as to the media, a politician, etc See also briefs

brief More Idioms  

1. see hold no brief for; in brief.

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Usage

What does brief mean? Brief is most commonly used as an adjective to mean lasting a short amount of time. As an adjective, it can also mean concise or said in a few words, as in Keep your introduction brief and get right to the point. Less commonly, brief can describe an action or interaction as abrupt or too short, often in a rude way, as in Please don’t be so brief with customers. The adverb form of the adjective brief is briefly, which most commonly means for a short amount of time or concisely. As a noun, the word brief commonly means a short written item. In a legal context, a brief is a short legal document, such as a written argument submitted to a court or some other short statement of facts for use in a legal case. Brief can also be used as a verb meaning to provide a short explanation or summary of something to someone, as in Each cabinet member will brief the president on the most important issues. The noun briefing refers to a meeting at which someone is briefed in this way. Example: The meeting was very brief—it lasted only a few minutes.

Synonym Usage

See short. See summary.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• briefer
  noun
• briefness
  noun
• unbriefness
  noun
• unbrief
  adjective
• unbriefed
  adjective
• briefly
  adverb
• unbriefly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• briefs
  plural

Adjectives

• briefer
  comparative
• briefest
  superlative

Participles

• briefing
  present
• briefed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• brief
  simple
• briefs
  simple
• have briefed
  perfect
• has briefed
  perfect
• am briefing
  progressive
• are briefing
  progressive
• is briefing
  progressive
• have been briefing
  perfect progressive
• has been briefing
  perfect progressive

Past

• briefed
  simple
• had briefed
  perfect
• was briefing
  progressive
• were briefing
  progressive
• had been briefing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will brief
  simple
• will have briefed
  perfect
• will be briefing
  progressive
• will have been briefing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of brief

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English bref, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin brevis “short”; see breve

Explanation

Something brief is short and to the point. If you make a brief visit, you don't stay long. If you make a brief statement, you use few words. If you wear brief shorts, you are showing a little too much leg. As a noun, a brief is a condensed summary or abstract, especially a legal summary of a case. Lawyers submit pretrial briefs to the court outlining the witnesses for the prosecution or defense. As a verb, brief means to give essential information to someone — like the President gets briefed on important matters.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

brief briefs briefer briefest briefed briefing

I find brief is best if you want the assistant to be a straight shooter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

For a brief period, the energy being released reached roughly 400 billion times the output of Earth's Sun, surpassing even the most powerful supernovae known to astronomers.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

However, within hours Cambridge's top administrator, Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice, confirmed his death with a brief statement that said the prestigious British institution was "desperately saddened" by the "tragic news".

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Pro, released in March 2025, and Gemini 3.0 Pro, released in November 2025, enjoyed brief stints at the frontier until Anthropic’s Claude models usurped them, Schwarz said.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

Death, she often said, was waiting to snatch her from her work, and so she kept her hours of repose as brief and businesslike as possible.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Loyal, and not someone who briefs against colleagues to journalists or indulges in political games, he has been around the top of the Labour party for three decades.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

That’s why legal briefs in the case are riddled with citations to an obscure 1915 book by a Boston lawyer named Josiah Henry Benton, who argued that historians had overlooked the practice.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

A pair of Orange County immigration attorneys received temporary suspensions after the court discovered they used generative AI to write briefs that included “multiple nonexistent cases, misattributed quotations, and gross misrepresentations.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

Encyclicals aren’t meant to be strict policy briefs but rather a letter on a topic the pope wants the global Catholic community to seriously reflect upon.

From Slate ● May 28, 2026

He paused and then said he wanted the parties to submit written briefs arguing what ruling he should make.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Those uprisings, later coined the Arab Spring, succeeded in bringing about a short democratic sojourn in Tunisia and a much briefer one in Egypt, but they also unleashed unrest.

From Barron's ● Apr. 10, 2026

Speaking to the BBC, he said he was "not challenging the prime minister" adding: "I'm not doing any of the things some silly briefer said overnight."

From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2025

Vaill could have made Pride and Pleasure a briefer book if she had chosen to constrict the male narrative and focus on the sisters alone.

From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2025

The answers have grown into stories, now briefer than before but still mostly complete.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2024

Al Ulbrickson also made a few, much briefer, remarks to the press.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Under former general manager Perry Minasian, college players would be stoked to be drafted by the Angels, who did not hesitate to promote top prospects to the major leagues after the briefest of minor-league stints.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026

Sinner did not face a single break point in the opener, but the briefest of blips allowed Borges to take a break lead early in the second set.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

When Bowie briefly takes Connelly’s hand for the briefest one-two-three, one-two-three, imagining millions of hearts swooning in concert isn’t hard to do.

From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026

She has made only the briefest appearances in his legal dramas.

From BBC ● May 31, 2024

We sit on the log bench and he fills my palm with seed, and even though it is only for the briefest moment, a sparrow lands and flies away with a beak full.

From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson

The person actually leaving, of course, is White House “pep secretary” Karoline Leavitt, who returned from paid maternity leave about a month ago and has only briefed the press corps twice since returning.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026

CBS News said the plan came up during Trump's cabinet meeting on Friday, according to sources briefed later.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

Grynspan, the former vice-president of Costa Rica and head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, was followed by former Guyanese foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, according to two diplomatic sources briefed on the results.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

Dozens of legislators, staff and agency personnel have already been briefed on the latest research, and Boerner said she’s putting together a working group.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

They had been briefed, earlier, on the...situation...in the citadel.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

In 2019, China’s then-premier, Li Keqiang, visited the site and got a briefing from Chen on Hengli’s future plans.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

“For these companies, this is a real point of reckoning,” attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett of the Social Media Victims Law Center said during a press briefing Friday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

He told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast it was "surprising" that Swinney was calling for the Ming Yang plan to be reconsidered since he had received a national security briefing about the plan.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

"I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and, you know, had fun with us," the Kansas City Chiefs player told a briefing.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

But he'd also vowed to make this the smoothest presidential transition in history, instructing every department in the executive branch to prepare briefing binders for the incoming administration.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Related Words

• concise
• fleeting
• momentary
• quick
• short-lived
• swift
• temporary