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short and sweet

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short and sweet

Cliché brief (and pleasant because of briefness). That was a good sermon—short and sweet. I don't care what you say, as long as you make it short and sweet.

See also: and, short, sweet

short and sweet

  (humorous)

pleasantly short This morning's lecture was short and sweet.

See have on a short leash, be nothing short of [astonishing etc.], in the long run, draw the short straw, fall short of, pull up short, sell short, stop short, stop short of, in the long term

See also: and, short, sweet

short and sweet

Satisfyingly brief and pertinent, as in When we asked about the coming merger, the chairman's answer was short and sweet-it wasn't going to happen . This expression was already proverbial in 1539, when it appeared in Richard Taverner's translation of Erasmus's Adagia. Over the years it was occasionally amplified, as in James Kelly's Scottish Proverbs (1721): "Better short and sweet than long and lax."

See also: and, short, sweet