a. Also 7 terce, tearce, teirce. [ad. L. ters-us, pa. pple. of tergēre, -ĕre to wipe.]
† 1. Wiped, brushed; smoothed; clean-cut, sharp-cut; polished, burnished; neat, trim, spruce.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, III. I am enamour’d of this street … ’tis so polite and terse.
1607. Dekker & Webster, Northw. Hoe, II. i. Ist neate, is it terse! am I hansome? ha!
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 20. This Man … so laboured vpon it, that he left it smooth and terce.
1623. Cockeram, Teirce, fine, neat, spruce.
1640. Wilkins, New Planet, IX. (1707), 256. The concave Superficies of that Sphere [the Moon] is usually supposed to be exactly terse and smooth.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. 39 (Mod. Antiq.). Mrs. Frances’ features … were rather terse and sharp.
† 2. fig. Polite, polished, refined, cultured: esp. in reference to language. Obs. (passing into 3).
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. III. xv. (1628), 132. A polite and terse Academicke.
1631. Massinger, Emperor East, I. ii. Your polite and terser gallants.
1695. J. Edwards, Perfect. Script., 6. Castellio … hath turned the whole Bible into pure, terse, elegant Latin.
1774. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, Diss. ii. (1840), I. p. cxviii. Henry of Huntingdon … was likewise a terse and polite Latin poet of this period. Ibid., II. xxvii. 365. A terse conciseness of sentences.
3. spec. Freed from verbal redundancy; neatly concise; compact and pithy in style or language. (The current use.)
1777. W. Whitehead, The Goat’s Beard, 1.
| In eight terse Lines has Phædrus told | |
| (So frugal were the Bards of old) | |
| A Tale of Goats. |
1840. Brit. & For. Rev., X. 205. The contrast with the simple and terse style of the thanks of his Grace, must have increased the effect.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 16, note. An eminently clear, terse, and spirited summary.
1866. Felton, Anc. & Mod. Gr., I. II. i. 286. The tersest simplicity and most pregnant brevity of speech.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. x. 475, note. The Peterborough Chronicler is almost startling in his terse brevity.
† 4. Applied to claret; also absol. as sb. Obs.
(Perh. not the same word. Some suggest Thiers, name of a wine-producing place in Puy-de-Dôme.)
1671. Shadwell, Humourists, IV. Wks. 1720 I. 179. Must I stay ’till by the strength of terse claret you have wet yourself into courage.
1687. Sedley, Bellamira, II. i. I am so full I should spill terse at every jolt. Ibid. He grudg’d his money for honest terse.
