The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Compendious \Com*pen"di*ous\, a. [L. compendiosus.]
   Containing the substance or general principles of a subject
   or work in a narrow compass; abridged; summarized.
   [1913 Webster]

         More compendious and expeditious ways.   --Woodward.
   [1913 Webster]

         Three things be required in the oration of a man having
         authority -- that it be compendious, sententious, and
         delectable.                              --Sir T.
                                                  Elyot.

   Syn: Short; summary; abridged; condensed; comprehensive;
        succinct; brief; concise.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

compendious
    adj 1: briefly giving the gist of something; "a short and
           compendious book"; "a compact style is brief and pithy";
           "succinct comparisons"; "a summary formulation of a wide-
           ranging subject" [syn: compendious, compact,
           succinct, summary]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

62 Moby Thesaurus words for "compendious":
   Spartan, abbreviated, abridged, across-the-board,
   all-comprehensive, all-inclusive, aposiopestic, blanket, brief,
   brusque, clipped, close, compact, complete, comprehensive,
   compressed, concise, condensed, contracted, crisp, curt, curtal,
   curtate, cut, decurtate, docked, elliptic, encyclopedic,
   epigrammatic, global, gnomic, instantaneous, laconic, little, low,
   omnibus, over-all, panoramic, pithy, pointed, pruned, reserved,
   sententious, short, short and sweet, shortened, succinct, summary,
   sweeping, synopsized, synoptic, taciturn, terse, tight,
   to the point, total, transient, truncated, universal, whole,
   without exception, without omission