IN A NUTSHELL • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of In a nutshell

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/ɪn ə nˈətʃˌɛl/ Listen

noun

Nutshell n.

The shell or hard external covering in which the kernel of a nut is inclosed.

Hence, a thing of little compass, or of little value.

(Zool.) A shell of the genus Nucula.

in a nutshell in a summarized and very abbreviated form; of statments, descriptions, reports, and other communications; as, to describe the convention in a nutshell.

To be in a nutshell or To lie in a nutshell, to be within a small compass; to admit of very brief or simple determination or statement. "The remedy lay in a nutshell."

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Etymology of 'In a nutshell'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"In a nutshell" Quotes from Famous Books

... Christ"—out of date? When she says that the world is ruled by two enemies of all beauty, commerce and militarism—out of date? When she dismisses Oscar Wilde as a cabotin and yet thinks that the law should not have meddled with him—is not that the man and the situation in a nutshell? ...

— Alone • Norman Douglas

... I've begun to feel that there isn't a remotely intelligent human animal in the place. I'm going to retreat inland. In Chicago, at least, people know enough to keep their mouths shut. I'll tell you what the trouble is in a nutshell. People want things straight again. They want black and white so's they can all mass on the white side and make faces at the evil-doers who prefer the black. They don't want facts, diagnosis, theories, interpretations, reports. They want somebody to stand up and announce in ...

— Erik Dorn • Ben Hecht

... truth in a nutshell. It is well that it should be stated. Let us hope, now that it stands revealed, that it will influence ...

— The Teeth of the Tiger • Maurice Leblanc

... mothers into slave-drivers, is undermined and degraded by this illegitimate competition, the most powerful of all factors in lowering wages, and preventing organization among regular factory hands. The matter lies in a nutshell. Industry which originated in the home could be safely carried on there only as long as it remained simple and the operations thereof such as one individual could complete. As soon as through the invention of power-driven machinery industry reached the stage of high specialization and ...

— The Trade Union Woman • Alice Henry

... in, heard a sensational newspaper report of anti-ally criminal intent, and on the spot accused the highly respectable Granados rancho of indulging in that same variety of hellishness! Now there is your case in a nutshell, Bub, and you wouldn't get the authorities to believe you in ...

— The Treasure Trail - A Romance of the Land of Gold and Sunshine • Marah Ellis Ryan

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