pithy

Adjective

pithy (comparative pithier, superlative pithiest)

1. Concise and meaningful.
   • Mr. Lamb, on the contrary, being "native to the manner here," though he too has borrowed from previous sources, instead of availing himself of the most popular and admired, has groped out his way, and made his most successful researches among the more obscure and intricate, though certainly not the...1825, William Hazlitt, “Elia, and Geoffrey Crayon”, in The Spirit of the Age […] , London: Printed for Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC
   • The following passage, which is exquisitely pithy and exquisitely modest, winds up the description:- "In this apparatus there is nothing new but its simplicity and thorough trustworthiness."1873 April 25, “Obituary - Justus Liebig”, in William Crookes, editor, The Chemical News

   Synonyms:

   terse, concise, laconic, succinct

2. Of, like, or abounding in pith; spongy or having small holes or pits.
   • Must we know the torrid zone only through travelled bananas, plucked too soon and pithy? or by bottled anacondas? or by the tarry-flavored slang of forecastle-bred paroquets?1863, Theodore Winthrop, “The Heart of the Andes”, Part 2 – Introduction, published posthumously in Life in the Open Air and other papers
   • Parsnip.—Dig the roots before they grow and become soft and pithy.1910, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Manual of Gardening, Suggestions and Reminders I: For the North, April
3. (Scotland, archaic) Vigorous, powerful, strong; substantial.
   • His bairns a’ before the flood / Had langer tack o’ fleſh and blood, / And on mair pithy ſhanks they ſtood / Than Noah’s line, / Wha ſtill hae been a feckleſs brood / Wi’ drinking wine.1773 January 21, R[obert] Fergusson, “Caller Water”, in The Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement, Edinburgh: […] Wal[ter] Ruddiman, →OCLC, page 114, column 2
   • Next, from the well-air’d ancient town of Crail, / Go out her craftsmen with tumultuous din, / Her wind-bleach’d fishers, garrulous and thin; / And some are flush’d with horns of pithy ale, […]1812, [William Tennant], “Approach of Spring Described. […]”, in Anster Fair, a Poem. […], Edinburgh: […] [F]or William Cockburn, […] [b]y Oliver & Boyd, […], →OCLC, stanza XIX, page 33