in a nutshell
- 1Expressed in summary, using only a few words to convey the main point of something larger.
In a nutshell, the merger failed because neither side trusted the other.
He summarized the lengthy report in a nutshell for the busy executives.
Similarbriefly, basically, essentially, succinctly, concisely
Note
A borrowed image: the phrase translates New Latin in nuce, from Pliny the Elder's report that Cicero spoke of the whole Iliad written on parchment and enclosed in a nutshell. Joseph Conrad keeps the picture alive in Heart of Darkness (1899), placing a yarn's meaning "within the shell of a cracked nut." Mid-sentence it is usually set off by commas, and it pairs naturally with sums up.
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Origin
This is a calque of New Latin in nuce, which comes from an anecdote in Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia 7.21.85). Pliny credits Cicero with the claim that the entire Iliad was once written on parchment small enough to be enclosed within a nutshell.