curtly

English

Adverb

curtly (comparative more curtly, superlative most curtly)

1. In a curt manner; tersely, almost rudely.
   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XVIII:

     The thing I wanted most at this juncture was to have a heart-to-heart talk with that young femme fatale, and after roaming hither and thither for a while I found her in my chair on the lawn, reading the Ma Cream book in which I had been engrossed when these doings had started. 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.”