All 8 Uses of
brief
in
Bleak House
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- On such an afternoon, if ever, the Lord High Chancellor ought to be sitting here—as here he is—with a foggy glory round his head, softly fenced in with crimson cloth and curtains, addressed by a large advocate with great whiskers, a little voice, and an interminable brief, and outwardly directing his contemplation to the lantern in the roof, where he can see nothing but fog.†
Chpt 1-3
- Thus they pass on from room to room, raising the pictured Dedlocks for a few brief minutes as the young gardener admits the light, and reconsigning them to their graves as he shuts it out again.†
Chpt 7-9
- In the shade of Cook's Court, at most times a shady place, Mr. Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper—foolscap, brief, draft, brown, white, whiteybrown, and blotting; in stamps; in office-quills, pens, ink, Indiarubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and wafers; in red tape and green ferret; in pocket-books, almanacs, diaries, and law lists; in string boxes, rulers, inkstands—glass and leaden—pen-knives, scissors,…†
Chpt 10-12
- With which remark he finishes his brief attendance and returns to finish his dinner.†
Chpt 10-12
- Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock, as I have already apologized for intruding on you, I cannot do better than be very brief.†
Chpt 28-30
- They are very brief.†
Chpt 40-42 *
- But the sun of his sociality soon recovers from this brief eclipse and shines again.†
Chpt 49-51
- My companion paid our two drivers, who were as completely covered with splashes as if they had been dragged along the roads like the carriage itself, and giving them some brief direction where to take it, lifted me out of it and into a hackney-coach he had chosen from the rest.†
Chpt 58-60
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).