All 6 Uses of
brief
in
Harry Potter (#7) and the Deathly Hallows
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- There was a brief silence in which the distant echo of Hagrid smashing down a wooden front door seemed to reverberate through the intervening years.†
Chpt 3
- He saw a large shadow and felt a fury that was not his own pound through his body, violent and brief as an electric shock.†
Chpt 9
- After the usual brief spell of darkness and near suffocation, Harry found himself in the tiny alleyway where the first phase of their plan was scheduled to take place.†
Chpt 12
- Neither Dumbledore nor Grindelwald ever seems to have referred to this brief boyhood friendship in later life.†
Chpt 18 *
- Harry felt as though he was recuperating from some brief but severe, an impression reinforced by Hermione's solicitousness.†
Chpt 19
- He had one, brief glimpse of the stone Pensieve on the desk where he had left it, and then an earsplitting noise made him cry out, thinking of curses and returning Death Eaters and the rebirth of Voldemort — But it was applause.†
Chpt 36
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).