Talk:brief

hold a brief

Is this idiomatic, meaning something like "be in support of"? I saw it in an old American magazine advertising Chinese cabbage: "The testimony of unprejudiced people who have eaten petsai is all in its favor, and many who have eaten chop suey and liked it, not knowing of what it is composed, unwittingly have held a brief for petsai — one of the staple ingredients of that well-known and much-enjoyed Chinese-American dish." Equinox ◑ 19:55, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Not quite related: Chambers 1908 has hold a brief, "to be retained as counsel in a case", and take a brief, "to undertake a case". Those might be regarded as SoP. Equinox ◑ 00:20, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

@Equinox: (Idioms) hold no brief for somebody/something ​(formal) to not support or be in favour of somebody/something I hold no brief for either side in this war. --Backinstadiums (talk) 08:29, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

curt

Curt and abrupt in conversation
A brief exchange between adversaries 

--Backinstadiums (talk) 14:52, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Advertising (or other creative) brief

There seems to be a commonly-used sense of the word "brief" which is missing from here. That is an "advertising brief" or "creative brief". It is the agreement between a client and an advertising/ creative contractor, outlining the objectives of the project, scope of work, and parameters of the engagement. A reference is:

• Law, Jonathan (2009 January 1) “Advertising brief”, in A Dictionary of Business and Management‎^[1], Oxford University Press, →DOI, retrieved 20 October 2020

--Gronk Oz (talk) 13:11, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

"Obsolete" usage not entirely gone

Under the noun form is this definition: "(obsolete) A summary, précis or epitome; an abridgement or abstract."

Like most usages of the noun form, this is still used by lawyers. Or more accurately, law students doing their casebook reading assignments; they are encouraged "to brief" or "write a brief" of each case, in the sense of the above "obsolete" usage (see: this Westlaw article). While it is similar to "A memorandum of points of fact or of law for use in conducting a case," it's not for use in conducting a case, and usually only addresses the facts/laws discussed in a single case, not the broader legal picture of the issues raised in that case. Lexid523 (talk) 18:06, 4 June 2021 (UTC)