brief vs special delivery

brief

noun
  • A writ summoning one to answer; an official letter or mandate. 

  • An answer to any action. 

  • A position of interest or advocacy. 

  • An attorney's legal argument in written form for submission to a court. 

  • A short news story or report. 

  • A memorandum of points of fact or of law for use in conducting a case. 

  • The material relevant to a case, delivered by a solicitor to the barrister who is counsel for the case. 

  • A ticket of any type. 

  • A letter patent, from proper authority, authorizing a collection or charitable contribution of money in churches, for any public or private purpose. 

  • A barrister who is counsel for a party in a legal action. 

  • underwear briefs. 

verb
  • To summarize a recent development to some person with decision-making power. 

  • To write a legal argument and submit it to a court. 

adj
  • Of short duration; happening quickly. 

  • Concise; taking few words. 

  • Occupying a small distance, area or spatial extent; short. 

special delivery

noun
  • A particular posted letter or package which is delivered in this manner; a particular act of conveying such letters or packages to one or more recipients. 

  • A kind of postal service in which, for an extra fee, letters and packages are delivered in a highly expedited manner by a special courier. 

  • Something—whether desirable or undesirable—which is intentionally given to a specific individual or which an individual receives rapidly and unexpectedly; the personalized, direct quality of the transmission of such an item. 

How often have the words brief and special delivery occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )