n. 1. The shell or hard external covering in which the kernel of a nut is inclosed. [ 1913 Webster ]
2. Hence, a thing of little compass, or of little value. [ 1913 Webster ]
3. (Zool.) A shell of the genus Nucula. [ 1913 Webster ]
in a nutshellin a summarized and very abbreviated form; -- of statments, descriptions, reports, and other communications; as, to describe the convention in a nutshell. -- To be in a nutshellor To lie in a nutshell, , to be within a small compass; to admit of very brief or simple determination or statement. “The remedy lay in a nutshell.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]
[照葫芦画瓢 / 照葫蘆畫瓢, zhào hú lu huà piáo, ㄓㄠˋ ㄏㄨˊ ㄌㄨ˙ ㄏㄨㄚˋ ㄆㄧㄠˊ]lit. to draw a painting inside a gourd (成语 saw); fig. a model; a world in a nutshell#108307[Add to Longdo]