The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - brief adj.

1) short, momentary, little, fleeting; short-lived, transitory, transient, evanescent, passing, temporary, ephemeral, fugitive: The lights went back on after a brief interval. His glory was brief. 2) short, concise, succinct, to the point; condensed, shortened, cut, curtailed, abbreviated, compressed, abridged, thumbnail, compendious: The chairman made a few brief remarks. Here is a brief description of what happened. 3) curt, abrupt, terse, short, blunt, brusque: You mustn't be so brief with little children. --n. 4) summary, outline, digest, pr‚cis, r‚sum‚, compendium, abstract, condensation, abridgement or US only abridgment, synopsis, extract: This is merely a brief; the full document will follow. 5) in brief. briefly, concisely, in sum, in summary, to sum up, succinctly, in a word: He is a cutthroat, too - in brief, the greatest scoundrel living. --v. 6) advise, inform, fill in, coach, instruct, enlighten; explain, run through or down: Howard will brief you on the details.