Both Uses of
brusque
in
Oryx and Crake
- If they'd been having a thing already they'd have been brusque and businesslike in public, they'd have avoided each other if anything; they'd have had quick and dirty trysts in grungy corners, weltering around in their own popped buttons and stuck zippers on the office carpet, chewing each other's ears in car parks.†
p. 66.7brusque = abrupt
- From an ordinary man Jimmy would have found it brusque, even aggressive, but these people didn't go in for fancy language: they hadn't been taught evasion, euphemism, lily-gilding.†
p. 348.6 *
Definition:
abrupt (sudden and quick -- without taking the time to be friendly)