Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Brief and to the point; effectively concise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See terce.
  • Wiped; rubbed; appearing as if wiped or rubbed; smooth.
  • Refined; accomplished; polished: said of persons.
  • Free from superfluity; neatly or elegantly compact or concise; neat; concise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Polished, burnished; smooth; fine, neat, spruce.
  • adjective of speech or style Brief, concise, to the point.
  • adjective Abruptly or brusquely short.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective brief and to the point; effectively cut short

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin tersus, past participle of tergēre, to cleanse.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the year 1599, from French ters ("clean"), from Latin tersus ("cleansed; neat, spruce"), perfect passive participle of tergō ("I rub, wipe, cleanse").

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Examples

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  • See laconic.

    December 18, 2007