\Terse\, a. [Compar. {Terser}; superl. {Tersest}.] [L.
tersus, p. p. of tergere to rub or wipe off.]
1. Appearing as if rubbed or wiped off; rubbed; smooth;
   polished. [Obs.]
         Many stones, . . . although terse and smooth, have
         not this power attractive.            --Sir T.
                                               Browne.
2. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons. [R. & Obs.]
   ``Your polite and terse gallants.'' --Massinger.
3. Elegantly concise; free of superfluous words; polished to
   smoothness; as, terse language; a terse style.
         Terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence.
                                               --Macaulay.
         A poet, too, was there, whose verse Was tender,
         musical, and terse.                   --Longfellow.
Syn: Neat; concise; compact.
Usage: {Terse}, {Concise}. Terse was defined by Johnson
       ``cleanly written'', i. e., free from blemishes, neat
       or smooth. Its present sense is ``free from
       excrescences,'' and hence, compact, with smoothness,
       grace, or elegance, as in the following lones of
       Whitehead:
             ``In eight terse lines has Ph[ae]drus told (So
             frugal were the bards of old) A tale of goats;
             and closed with grace, Plan, moral, all, in that
             short space.'' It differs from concise in not
       implying, perhaps, quite as much condensation, but
       chiefly in the additional idea of ``grace or
       elegance.'' -- {Terse"ly}, adv. -- {Terse"ness}, n.