debrief

verb de·brief \ (ˌ)dē-ˈbrēf \

Updated on: 12 May 2018

1 : to interrogate (someone, such as a pilot) usually upon return (as from a mission) in order to obtain useful information

The hostages were later debriefed by police.

2 : to carefully review upon completion

debrief the flight

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Examples of debrief in a Sentence

Police debriefed the hostages upon their return.
The pilot was debriefed after his flight.

Recent Examples of debrief from the Web

Among the early arrivals at around 11:30 p.m. were Sebastian Stan, Darren Criss (in Versace, of course), and Priyanka Chopra, who debriefed together by the bar.

— h.w. vail, Vanities, "Jennifer Lopez Danced to Her Own Song at Balmain’s Met Gala After-Party," 8 May 2018
Jennie Hoff, former assistant director of the Medina Recovery Center, said the group meets weekly to support each other, to debrief from the past week, and to provide accountability.

— mary jane brewer, cleveland.com, "Medina recovery group meets for food and fellowship," 23 Apr. 2018
The winners already had returned to their hotels, showered, been drug-tested, and debriefed by the media when Moffi was just digging into the race.

— barbara matson, BostonGlobe.com, "Paul Moffi is a fitting representative of the Boston Marathon," 16 Apr. 2018
Simultaneously, Detective Poole debriefs the 1998 chief of police, Bernard Parks, about his findings with Ray Perez and the string of crooked LAPD officers.

— scott glaysher, Billboard, "'Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.' Episodes 5 & 6: Beef Intensifies Between Bad Boy and Death Row," 4 Apr. 2018
In addition to keeping track of Russians, some of this FBI work also involved debriefing Americans who traveled to Russia.

— steve miletich, The Seattle Times, "Russian spies in Seattle: Black ops, Soviet subs and counter intel in the Pacific Northwest," 28 Mar. 2018
Wayne Frederick, president of Howard University, one of the largest of the 102 historically black universities and colleges in the U.S., debriefed students in groups of four and five after their summer at Google.

— jessica guynn, USA TODAY, "Exclusive: Google expands Howard West to train more black coders," 30 Jan. 2018
In the days after the game players spent much time on the phone, debriefing each other.

— lee jenkins, SI.com, "After Lob City Dysfunction, Chris Paul Seizes Second Shot at Superstar Marriage," 24 Jan. 2018
South Korean diplomats visited North Korea earlier in the week, before heading to Washington D.C. to debrief the White House.

— joe difazio, Newsweek, "Paralympics 2018: Contested Islands on Flag Kept the Two Koreas From Marching Together," 9 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'debrief.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of debrief

1944

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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DEBRIEF Defined for English Language Learners

debrief

verb

: to officially question (someone) about a job that has been done or about an experience

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