The AI-powered English dictionary
comparative more curtly, superlative most curtly
In a curt manner; tersely, almost rudely. quotations examples
She greeted me with a bright smile, and said: “Back already? Did you find it?” With a strong effort I mastered my emotion and replied curtly but civilly that the answer was in the negative. “No,” I said, “I did not find it.”
1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins