TERSER
Adjective
terser
comparative form of terse
Anagrams
• Rester, errest, erster, rester
Source: Wiktionary
TERSE
Terse, a. [Compar. Terser; superl. Tersest.] Etym: [L. tersus, p.p.
of tergere to rub or wipe off.]
1. Appearing as if rubbed or wiped off; rubbed; smooth; polished.
[Obs.]
Many stones, . . . although terse and smooth, have not this power
attractive. Sir T. Browne.
2. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons. [R. & Obs.] "Your
polite and terse gallants." Massinger.
3. Elegantly concise; free of superfluous words; polished to
smoothness; as, terse language; a terse style.
Terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence. Macaulay.
A poet, too, was there, whose verse Was tender, musical, and terse.
Longfellow.
Syn.
– Neat; concise; compact. Terse, Concise. Terse was defined by
Johnson "cleanly written", i. e., free from blemishes, neat or
smooth. Its present sense is "free from excrescences," and hence,
compact, with smoothness, grace, or elegance, as in the following
lones of Whitehead: -
"In eight terse lines has Phædrus told (So frugal were the bards of
old) A tale of goats; and closed with grace, Plan, moral, all, in
that short space." It differs from concise in not implying, perhaps,
quite as much condensation, but chiefly in the additional idea of
"grace or elegance." -- Terse"ly, adv.
– Terse"ness, n.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition