How to Use terse in a Sentence

terse

adjective
  • She gave me a few terse instructions and promptly left the room.
  • His wife and children found a terse note that said only not to look for him.
    Amy Wang | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 17 July 2023
  • That was followed by a fairly terse note on the website.
    oregonlive, 31 Mar. 2020
  • In the end, her terse last word on the show was in keeping with her public persona.
    Michelle Tauber, Peoplemag, 25 Sep. 2024
  • His exchanges with Rob are terse to the point of being hostile.
    Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 15 July 2021
  • When asked what makes Lyles so difficult to race against, Knighton was terse.
    Sean Gregory / Paris, TIME, 30 July 2024
  • The eclecticism of the bill spoke to his wandering ear, and ranged from the terse hardcore of Show Me the Body to the wise-ass raps of Wiki.
    Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, 21 May 2018
  • The closing exchange was a terse end to what had been a cordial debate.
    James Powel, USA TODAY, 2 Oct. 2024
  • His departure was announced in a terse statement by the White House.
    Cathleen Decker, latimes.com, 29 Sep. 2017
  • When asked Monday night about what happened with the video, Toney was at times terse with reporters.
    Jesse Newell, Kansas City Star, 6 Feb. 2024
  • On the trail, DeSantis can be brief with voters and terse with reporters.
    Hannah Knowles, Josh Dawsey, Michael Scherer and Marianne Levine, The Washington Post, Anchorage Daily News, 16 July 2023
  • His wayward path was presented in terse blasts of punk-blues.
    Greg Kot, chicagotribune.com, 2 June 2017
  • Their voice is monotone, or their online chatting is dry and terse.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2023
  • The question brought a terse response from the German government.
    Adam Shaw, Fox News, 30 Sep. 2023
  • But as her life unfolded there in the tent, one terse answer at a time, the man in white never seemed surprised.
    Hazlitt, 24 Jan. 2024
  • The conversations have been described as brief and terse.
    Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 21 July 2023
  • The counts provided terse descriptions of what Nolan was alleged to have done.
    Scott Wartman, Cincinnati.com, 9 Feb. 2018
  • Reese, who scored 15 points and played a key part in LSU’s victory, had a terse response to the prospect that Iowa would be invited as well.
    Kate Armanini, BostonGlobe.com, 4 Apr. 2023
  • Another got a terse letter for not spraying the mold off the side of his house frequently enough.
    Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Washington Post, 7 Aug. 2017
  • After a month without a response, Cerutti wrote back with a terse reminder, adding Harper to the email.
    Lisa Song, ProPublica, 20 Sep. 2019
  • Janet has a boyfriend on the premises, too: a terse, tetchy older fellow named Wayne (Will Patton), who mostly keeps to himself.
    Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 14 June 2024
  • Their exchange is terse and extremely one-sided in favor of the self-righteous Bosch.
    Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2023
  • Iowans shift their schedules to encounter candidates in fleshy 3-D, away from the terse theatrics of billboards and cable-news hits.
    Dan Zak, Washington Post, 30 Jan. 2020
  • The information was terse, only that Giffords had been shot.
    Lisa Kennedy, Variety, 15 Mar. 2022
  • In a terse order, the court refused to overturn an earlier ruling from the Michigan Court of Appeals.
    Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press, 9 Sep. 2024
  • Her text messages from London are infrequent and terse.
    Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
  • When an agent from Shein wrote Perry offering to feature her artwork on the site, Perry gave a terse response.
    James Powel, USA TODAY, 19 July 2023
  • The 26-year-old gave terse answers to reporters' questions, and within three minutes, the press conference was finished.
    Ben Morse, CNN, 4 July 2019
  • Sounding terse in a social media comment is of less concern.
    Miss Manners | Judith Martin, Anchorage Daily News, 27 Aug. 2023
  • The Army has been closed mouthed about the incident, issuing a terse two-sentence reply to questions Friday.
    Tom Roeder, The Denver Post, 16 June 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'terse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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