| 1. | He whittled and listened, gave monosyllabic replies, and, when it was asked, terse advice. - from The Call of the Wild by Jack London |
| 2. | The management was extremely terse over the telephone at breakfast-time, and took a lot of soothing. - from My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse |
| 3. | They have provided a system which for terse comprehensiveness surpasses Justinian's Pandects and the By-laws of the Chinese Society for the Suppression of Meddling with other People's Business. - from Moby Dick; or The Whale by Herman Melville |
| 4. | And one finds here and there terse descriptions, or snatches of song and ballad, like the "Boat Song" and "Lochinvar," which are among the best known in our literature. - from English Literature by William J. Long |
| 5. | The graceful elegance of Addison's essays, the terse vigor of Swift's satires, the artistic finish of Fielding's novels, the sonorous eloquence of Gibbon's history and of Burke's orations,--these have no parallel in the poetry of the age. - from English Literature by William J. Long |