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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Many stones, . . . although terse and smooth, have not this power attractive. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons. [ R. & Obs. ] “Your polite and terse gallants.” Massinger. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Elegantly concise; free of superfluous words; polished to smoothness; as, terse language; a terse style. [ 1913 Webster ]

Terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

A poet, too, was there, whose verse
Was tender, musical, and terse. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Neat; concise; compact. 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: - [ 1913 Webster ] “In eight terse lines has Phaedrus told
(So frugal were the bards of old)
A tale of goats; and closed with grace,
Plan, moral, all, in that short space.” [ 1913 Webster ] It differs from concise in not implying, perhaps, quite as much condensation, but chiefly in the additional idea of “grace or elegance.” [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Terse"ly, adv. -- Terse"ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]