adverb
Etymology: Middle English brefly, from bref + -ly
1.
a. : in a brief way
an attempt has been made to survey briefly the main aspects of this vast … subject — W.H.Dowdeswell
b. : in brief
the procedure adopted consisted briefly of selecting … parent trees based on reliability of cropping, yield records, and fruit quality — Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
2. : for a short time
she was briefly associated with the Civil Service Commission — Current Biography