Is this your crossword clue?
"brief" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often terse (5 letters).
Definitions
concise and succinct
Word origin
From Middle English breef, breve, bref, from Old French brief, bref, from Latin brevis (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short, brief”). Doublet of breve and merry.
Used in a sentence
“Her reign was brief but spectacular.”
“Some, how briefe the Life of man / runs his erring pilgrimage, / That the ſtretching of a ſpan, / buckles in his ſumme of age.”
“That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Concise and succinct”5 letters
Not quite right?
"Search similar patterns."
B____