IN A NUTSHELL

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does in a nutshell mean? 

• IN A NUTSHELL (adverb)
  The adverb IN A NUTSHELL has 1 sense:

1. summed up briefly

  Familiarity information: IN A NUTSHELL used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IN A NUTSHELL (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Summed up briefly

Context example:

explained the situation in a nutshell

 Context examples 

There it is in a nutshell.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There is the situation, Mr. Holmes, in a nutshell, and if you can help us to clear it up you will have done a great work.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There you have it all in a nutshell, Watson, and if you can give me any light I shall be infinitely obliged to you.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It lay in a nutshell.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When all were ready, the king sent them to her; but she got up in the night when all were asleep, and took three of her trinkets, a golden ring, a golden necklace, and a golden brooch, and packed the three dresses—of the sun, the moon, and the stars—up in a nutshell, and wrapped herself up in the mantle made of all sorts of fur, and besmeared her face and hands with soot.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)