catflap.org Online Dictionary Query |
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 : [ gcide ]
Nutshell \Nut"shell`\, n.
1. The shell or hard external covering in which the kernel of
a nut is inclosed.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence, a thing of little compass, or of little value.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Zo["o]l.) A shell of the genus Nucula.
[1913 Webster]
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.'' --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster +PJC]