nutshell

Meanings

1. 1
   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.

2. 2
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   the shell around the kernel of a nut

4. 4
   noun

   A short book summarizing an area of law.

5. 5
   verb

   To summarize (from the term in a nutshell).

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”).