Both Uses of
brief
in
The Picture of Dorian Gray - 20 chapter version
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- The few words she had to speak— Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss— with the brief dialogue that follows, were spoken in a thoroughly artificial manner.†
Chpt 7
- One's days were too brief to take the burden of another's errors on one's shoulders.†
Chpt 16 *
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).