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  1. terse love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Brief and to the point; effectively concise: a terse one-word answer.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Wiped; rubbed; appearing as if wiped or rubbed; smooth.
  2. Refined; accomplished; polished: said of persons.
  3. Free from superfluity; neatly or elegantly compact or concise; neat; concise.
  4. n. See terce.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. obsolete Polished, burnished; smooth; fine, neat, spruce.
  2. adj. of speech or style Brief, concise, to the point.
  3. adj. Abruptly or brusquely short.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. obsolete Appearing as if rubbed or wiped off; rubbed; smooth; polished.
  2. adj. R. & Obs. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons.
  3. adj. Elegantly concise; free of superfluous words; polished to smoothness.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. brief and to the point; effectively cut short

Etymologies

  1. From the year 1599, from French ters ("clean"), from Latin tersus ("cleansed; neat, spruce"), perfect passive participle of tergō ("I rub, wipe, cleanse"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin tersus, past participle of tergēre, to cleanse. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘terse’ has been looked up 6605 times, loved by 17 people, added to 126 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 5.