briefed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of brief.

   The general briefed reporters on the operation's outcome.

   Investigators were briefed before the evidence was made public.

   Note

   Brief is a regular verb, so one -ed form does the work of both past tense and participle: the general briefed reporters, and investigators were briefed. The form serves both meanings of the verb. One is bringing a decision-maker up to date, usually followed by on and the topic. The other is briefing a case, meaning writing a legal argument for a court.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having received a briefing; informed about the relevant facts of a task or situation.

   A well-briefed spokesman handled every awkward question with ease.

   The delegates arrived fully briefed on the morning's agenda.

   Similarinformed, prepared, primed, apprised

   Oppositeuninformed, unprepared

   Note

   Here the participle of the verb settles into an adjective for people who have been told what they need to know. Reporting has its stock phrase, a briefed source. Researchers set briefed witnesses against non-briefed ones, and aircrew are up and briefed. Degree words usually go in front, as in well-briefed or fully briefed, and some writers even say very briefed.

3. 3
   adjective

   Carried out as set out in a briefing; matching the instructions given beforehand.

   The crew followed the briefed sequence and completed the landing safely.

   Any departure from the briefed plan had to be reported at once.

   Similarplanned, prescribed, agreed

   Oppositeunplanned, improvised

   Note

   Here the briefing describes the plan rather than the person: a briefed course, a briefed takeoff time, a briefed mission. The phrase is at home in bomber-crew histories, where formations held their briefed course to the Initial Point. Architects use it too, for a building's briefed purpose. Unlike the "informed" meaning, it almost always sits before a noun.

4. 4
   adjective

   Reduced to a short summary; condensed into a shorter form.

   Readers received a briefed account of the long committee debate.

   The briefed minutes left out everything but the final decisions.

   Similarcondensed, abridged, abbreviated

   Oppositeunabridged, full, complete

   Note

   Here the thing itself has been shortened, not merely planned in advance: a briefed statement, item by item, or a briefed version sent to every diplomatic post. It belongs to official prose, as in US congressional hearings from 1922 to 1965. Next to the "as specified" meaning, a briefed statement can be ambiguous, so condensed or summarized is the safer choice when clarity matters.

5. 5
   adjective

   Of a case, having had one or more briefs (written statements of fact or legal argument) submitted for it.

   A briefed appeal sat on the clerk's desk awaiting the judge's attention.

   The thoroughly briefed dispute needed only short oral argument.

   Note

   Courts use it for the paperwork side of a case, building on the verb brief: to write a legal argument and submit it to a court. Judges and commentators grade it with adverbs, as in a thoroughly briefed case, a heavily briefed appeal or a properly briefed appeal. It also marks the written half of advocacy. An issue that is briefed and orally argued has been argued on paper and then again aloud.

6. 6
   adjective

   Of a lawyer, having cases to handle; actively engaged in legal work.

   A well-briefed advocate seldom has a free afternoon during term.

   He stayed briefed all year, moving from one trial straight into the next.

   Similarbusy, engaged

   Oppositeidle

   Note

   Here a brief is a case put in a lawyer's hands, and the word lives beside its opposite, briefless. Fraser's Magazine in 1849 pitied the briefless barrister without connections. H. B. Baildon's 1899 portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson has him walking Edinburgh's Parliament House "along with other briefed and briefless advocates." The word is about having work, not about being informed.

7. 7
   adjective

   Dressed in briefs, a type of short, close-fitting underwear.

   The model posed briefed and barefoot for the underwear advertisement.

   He lounged on the couch briefed, a shirt still draped over the chair.

   Note

   A formation on the pattern of gloved or booted, made from briefs the underwear. It usually sits before a noun, with the style of brief named first: bikini briefed hips, white cotton briefed hips. Readers usually expect the "informed" meaning, so this sense needs clothing in the context to land. Without it, a briefed model sounds like one who has simply been told the plan.

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