All 18 Uses of
brief
in
Anna Karenina
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- "No, you do as I told you," he said, softening his words with a smile, and with a brief explanation of his view of the matter he turned away from the papers, and said: "So do it that way, if you please, Zahar Nikititch."†
Part 1
- In that brief look Vronsky had time to notice the suppressed eagerness which played over her face, and flitted between the brilliant eyes and the faint smile that curved her red lips.†
Part 1
- "I can understand being carried away by feeling," she went on after a brief silence, "but deliberately, slyly deceiving me…. and with whom?†
Part 1
- She merely sent a brief note to her brother to tell him that he must not fail to dine at home.†
Part 1
- While he was washing, Petritsky described to him in brief outlines his position, as far as it had changed since Vronsky had left Petersburg.†
Part 1
- He simply gave Alexey Alexandrovitch the money he needed together with a brief statement of the position of his affairs, which was not altogether satisfactory, as it had happened that during that year, owing to increased expenses, more had been paid out than usual, and there was a deficit.†
Part 2
- There was nothing remarkable in all this conversation, but never after could Anna recall this brief scene without an agonizing pang of shame.†
Part 2
- It was the time when there comes a brief pause in the toil of the fields before the beginning of the labors of harvest—every year recurring, every year straining every nerve of the peasants.†
Part 3
- After a brief consultation—whether to take the rows lengthwise or diagonally—Prohor Yermilin, also a renowned mower, a huge, black-haired peasant, went on ahead.†
Part 3
- Rare indeed were the brief periods of peace.†
Part 3
- How am I to set about it?" he said to himself, trying to express to himself all the thoughts and feelings he had passed through in that brief night.†
Part 3
- That ought to form a brief introduction, which I thought unnecessary before.†
Part 3
- So you think he'll make her an offer today?" he added after a brief silence.†
Part 6
- _ was all she said, after a brief pause.†
Part 6 *
- The conversation touched for a brief space on politics and on how recent events were looked at in the higher spheres in Petersburg.†
Part 7
- About Anna," Stepan Arkadyevitch said, pausing for a brief space, and shaking off the unpleasant impression.†
Part 7
- "Alexey Alexandrovitch, you are not like yourself," said Oblonsky, after a brief pause.†
Part 7
- In that brief interval of time the storm clouds had moved on, covering the sun so completely that it was dark as an eclipse.†
Part 8
Definition:
-
(meaning too common or rare to warrant focus) Brief is most commonly encountered as an adjective meaning "of short duration." Other meanings derive from the idea of short--as when making a long story short by summarizing it, or when wearing briefs (underwear).