The Collaborative International Dictionary
To be in a nutshell
Nutshell \Nut"shell`\, 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.
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(Zo["o]l.) 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.''
--Macaulay.