in a nutshell
in a nutshell
Meaning
- to be brief and straight to the point.
- a concise summary of everything that has been said
- to reduce everything that has been stated to its simplest form
Example Sentences
- In a nutshell, all the new mayor was saying is that the fight against crime will be taken much more seriously.
- In a nutshell, Mary only wants everyone to be happy and she is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve this.
- As the new CEO, Mark told us in a nutshell that his plans for the company are expansion, innovation and sustainability.
- Tell us how you intend to execute all your plans in a nutshell.
- Sophie please don’t tell me fairy tales, I just want to know the real matter in a nutshell.
Origin
The first time this phrase was used was quite literal. Around the 1st century AD, in his text titled Pliny’s Natural History, Pliny tells a tale of how his friend, Cicero told him that he saw a copy of Homer’s famous poem, Iliad being made in a miniature form so that the whole poem written on a parchment can fit into the shell of a walnut. Therefore, the phrase in a nutshell came to be used to refer to reducing something so large to being simple and brief.
keep your nose clean ❯❮ kill the goose that lays the golden egg
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1 Thought
Nice one Thanks for helping
- Anonymous March 15, 2018