brusque

brusque
    adj 1: marked by rude or peremptory shortness; "try to cultivate
           a less brusque manner"; "a curt reply"; "the salesgirl
           was very short with him" [syn: {brusque}, {brusk},
           {curt}, {short(p)}]
    

Brusque \Brusque\, a. [F. brusque, from It. brusco brusque,
   tart, sour, perh. fr. L. (vitis) labrusca wild (vine); or cf.
   OHG. bruttisc grim, fr. brutti terror.]
   Rough and prompt in manner; blunt; abrupt; bluff; as, a
   brusque man; a brusque style.
   [1913 Webster]
    

115 Moby Thesaurus words for "brusque":
      Spartan, abbreviated, abridged, abrupt, aggressive, aposiopestic,
      artless, bearish, beastly, bluff, blunt, brash, brief, broad,
      candid, cavalier, churlish, clipped, close, close-tongued,
      closemouthed, compact, compendious, compressed, concise, condensed,
      contracted, crisp, crusty, curt, cut, direct, discourteous, docked,
      downright, dumb, economical of words, elliptic, epigrammatic,
      explicit, forthright, frank, frankhearted, free, free-speaking,
      free-spoken, free-tongued, genuine, gnomic, gruff, harsh,
      heart-to-heart, ill-mannered, impolite, indisposed to talk,
      ingenuous, laconic, mum, mute, open, openhearted, outspoken,
      overbearing, pithy, plain, plain-spoken, pointed, pruned, quiet,
      reserved, rough, round, rude, sententious, severe, sharp, short,
      short and sweet, shortened, silent, sincere, snippety, snippy,
      snug, sparing of words, speechless, straight, straight-out,
      straightforward, succinct, summary, surly, synopsized, taciturn,
      terse, tight, tight-lipped, to the point, tongue-tied, transparent,
      truculent, truncated, unchecked, uncivil, unconstrained,
      unequivocal, ungracious, unguarded, unloquacious, unmannerly,
      unreserved, unrestrained, untalkative, word-bound, wordless