Sentences: The hired girl ____ the cloth in ironing it.  By getting
too close to the fire he ____ the nap of his flannels.  The doctor at once
____ the wound.  The cook had picked the chicken and now ____ its down over
the coals.  I used to ____ grains of field corn on the cookstove, while my
mother prepared dinner.  Shelley’s body was ____ on a funeral pyre.  The
lecturer spoke of the time when the whole earth might be ____.  The earth
was ____ and all growing things were ____ by the intense summer heat.

Busy, industrious, diligent, assiduous, sedulous.

From much of the talk that we hear nowadays it might be supposed that the earnest devotion of one’s self to a task is a thing that has disappeared from the earth.  But a good many people are exhibiting this very devotion.  Let us see in what different degrees.  The man who actively applies himself to something, whether temporarily or habitually, is busy.  The man who makes continued application to work a principle or habit of life, is industrious.  The man who applies himself aggressively to the accomplishment of some specific undertaking or pursuit, is diligent.  The man who quietly and determinedly sticks to a task until it is accomplished, no matter what its difficulties or length, is assiduous.  The man who makes steady and painstaking application to whatever he is about, is sedulous.

Sentences:  Early in life he acquired ____ habits.  By patient and
____ study you may overcome those defects of your early education.  “How
doth the ____ little bee improve each shining hour.”  The manager gave such
____ attention to details that he made few mistakes.  He is ____ at
present.  Oh, yes, he is always ____.  “Nowher so ____ a man has he ther
has, And yet he seemed ____ than he was.”

Concise, terse, succinct, compendious, compact, sententious, pithy, laconic, curt.

Words descriptive of brief utterance are, in nearly every instance, in their origin figurative.  The brevity is brought out by comparison with something that is noticeably short or small.  Let us examine the words of our list for their figurative qualities.  A concise statement is one that is cut down until a great deal is said in a few words.  A terse statement is rubbed off, rid of unessentials.  A succinct statement has its important thoughts bound into small compass, as by a girdle.  A compendious statement weighs together the various thoughts and aspects of a subject; it shows by means of a few effective words just what these amount to, gives a summary of them.  A compact statement has its units of thought fastened together into firmness of structure; its brevity is well-knit.  A sententious statement gives feelings or opinions_ in a strikingly pointed or axiomatic way, so that they can be easily grasped and remembered; if sententious