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Glite Dictionary
to debrief

to debrief

21 6.1
Question someone after a mission or event to learn what happened
  • verb
  • /diːˈbrif/
  • Formal
translation icon : interrogar
  • To conclude the activity, the teacher debriefs the teams about the activity in a large-group session.
  • debriefed participants
  • debriefed subjects
  • debriefed students

And Saul is being debriefed by Rupert Friend's character.

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Examples

  • Participants were fully debriefed about the purpose of the study at the conclusion of testing.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Once the training exercise was over, the instructor called everyone in to debrief on their experiences and lessons learned.

  • Did you guys ever debrief it with the teacher or explain?

  • So yeah, we're going to debrief after this, but enjoy.

    WVFRM Podcast

  • We'll debrief later, but just know we're having a break.

  • Another night shift done and I'm going to debrief this one back at the house because we definitely have some things to talk about.

  • So we're going to debrief it and pick it to bits and analyse it.

    Rob Moore

  • First, they debriefed my mother on the Russian plot.

    Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020)

  • We gotta go to Washington and get debriefed.

    I Spy (2002)

  • The second step of the evaluation involves debriefing the students about the activity.

    Academic text (1993)

Synonyms

to interview
vsto debrief
862 2.7

Ask someone questions to get information, for example for a job

is done after a mission to assess outcomes and collect details

How Thorough

to interrogate
  • Formal
142 6.5
to debrief
  • Formal
21 6.1
to interview
862 2.7
to question
570 1.0
to ask
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

debrief infinitive
debriefed past
debriefed past participle
debriefing present participle
debriefs third person singular

Morphology

debrief = brief (semi-transparent) = de + brief

The prefix 'de-' typically indicates removal or reversal, but in 'debrief', it means to extract information, which is not a straightforward derivation.

Etymology

Debrief is built from de-, a part that can mean 'remove' or 'reverse', and brief, which means 'short' or a 'short instruction'. A helpful way to remember it is this: if to brief someone is to give short orders before a mission, to debrief them is to ask what happened after the mission and collect the information.