nutshell
The shell that surrounds the kernel of a nut.
Noun
- The shell that surrounds the kernel of a nut.
- For men be now tratlers and tellers of tales; What tidings at Totnam, what newis in Wales, What ſhippis are ſailing to Scalis Malis? And all is not worth a couple of nut ſhalis. - c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John...
- A short book summarizing an area of law.
- A small boat; a boat considered small in comparison to the seas.
- [A]t last the fishing-line stood straight out behind, and the stone weights jumped along the tops of the billows, while the seas - notwithstanding the guiding hand of the pilot sought to avoid them - broke over our...
Origin
From Middle English notschelle, from Old English hnutsċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *hnutskallju, equivalent to nut + shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Nuteskele, Nuteskil (“nutshell”), Dutch notenschaal (“nutshell”), German Nussschale (“nutshell”).
Forms
Derived
Verb
- To summarize (from the term in a nutshell).