Something that happens or is done briefly happens or is done for a very short period of time. He smiled briefly Guerillas captured and briefly held an important provincial capital
If you say or write something briefly, you use very few words or give very few details. There are four basic alternatives; they are described briefly below
You can say briefly to indicate that you are about to say something in as few words as possible. Briefly, no less than nine of our agents have passed information to us
in a concise manner; in a few words; "the history is summed up concisely in this book"; "she replied briefly"; "briefly, we have a problem"; "to put it shortly"