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Robbery. [Obs. or Scot.]

In grief; amiss. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Short in duration. How brief the life of man. Shak.

Having no brief; without clients; as, a briefless barrister.

Concisely; in few words.

One who makes a brief.

The quality of being brief; brevity; conciseness in discourse or writing.

sadness. The mother was so afflicted at the loss of a fine boy, . . . that she died for grief of it. Addison.

Full of grief or sorrow. Sackvingle.

Without grief. Huloet.

Heartache; sorrow. Milton.

Proof. [Obs.] Spenser. Lydgate.

Repreve. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Same as Sea letter.

A semibreve. [R.]

To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken. It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. Bacon.

s. Specifically: A summary or an epitome, as of a treatise or book, or of a statement; a brief. An abstract of every treatise he had read. Watts. Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled. Ford.

t, it is necessary to be acquainted with it. Locke. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Isa. liii. 3.

; as, the enemy had the advantage of a more elevated position. Give me advantage of some brief discourse. Shak. The advantages of a close alliance. Macaulay.

Admonition; advice; warning. [Obs.] Therefore give me no counsel: My griefs cry louder than advertisement. Shak.