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Vinony

nutshell

noun

  1. outer shell of a nut
L324616 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈnʌt.ʃɛl/

noun

Etymology: 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”).

  1. 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.”

  2. A short book summarizing an area of law.
  3. 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 little nutshell, and sent the spray high above mast and sail.”

verb

Etymology: 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”).

  1. To summarize (from the term in a nutshell).