nutshell
nutshells
The hard, protective covering of a nut is called a nutshell. If you hear someone say "in a nutshell," they are most likely summing something up in a few words.
It's more common to refer to a nutshell as simply a shell. Most people use the word nutshell figuratively. When you say, "in a nutshell," you mean "to sum it up," or "to condense a large amount of information into one short sentence." For example you might say, "In a nutshell, The Odyssey is the story of a guy who went on a long boat trip."
Definitions of nutshell
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the shell around the kernel of a nut
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type of:
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shell
the hard usually fibrous outer layer of some fruits especially nuts
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shell
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘nutshell'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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