brieflyadverb
uk/ˈbriːf.li/us/ˈbriːf.li/briefly adverb (SHORT TIME)
B1 for a short time:
We chatted briefly about the weather.
More examples
- She appears briefly in the new Bond film.
- He was briefly famous in his twenties but then sank into obscurity.
- He appears briefly towards the end of the film in a cameo role as a priest.
- She worked briefly as a journalist, but attracted attention as a writer with her stories of village life.
- He made his living briefly as a newspaper reporter before getting into politics.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Short in time
- awhile
- be short notice idiom
- bit
- blitz
- brevity
- brief
- ephemeral
- evanescent
- fit
- minute 1
- mo
- moment
- momentarily
- momentary
- msec
- quick
- shortish
- trice
- twinkling
- wee hours
See more results »
briefly adverb (FEW WORDS)
using few words or without giving a lot of details:
Briefly, the company needs to cut its expenditure.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Not saying much
- a man/woman of few words idiom
- abrupt
- brief
- cat
- concise
- crisp
- curt
- few
- has the cat got your tongue? idiom
- laconic
- not waste words idiom
- pithy
- quietly
- reticent
- taut
- terse
- wall
- walls have ears idiom
- waste
- well chosen
See more results »