ˈnutshell, n.
Forms: 3 nutescale, -scell; 4 noteschale, -schell, notscel; 6 nut(te)shale, 5 nutschell, 6 -shel; 6 nutte-, 6–7 nutt-, 7– nutshell.
[f. nut n.1 + shale n., shell n. Cf. MDu. noot-, notescale, no(o)tscael (Kilian notschaele), MSw. notskal (Sw. nötskal; Da. nöddeskal), MHG. nu{zced}schal (G. nussschale).]
1. The hard exterior covering within which the kernel of a nut is enclosed.
| c 1205 Lay. 29265 Þa bi-sohte he nute-scalen and lette þe curneles ut draȝen. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 141 He wroot alle þe gestes of Troye sotelliche, as it myȝte be closed in a note schale. c 1450 Holland Howlat 788 [He could make] Nobillis of nut schellis, and siluer of sand. 1562 Turner Herbal (1568) 133 Yf nutt shelles be burnt and made lyke asshes. 1577 F. de Lisle's Legendarie I viij, His sonne Henrie, yet more meete to play with nutshales, then to handle a sword. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. i. 50 I'le warrant him for drowning, though the Ship were no stronger then a Nutt-shell. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 6 For who believes that one Magot waits for the Nutshel another has left. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 110 We embarked..in a wherry, so light and slender, that we looked like so many fairies sailing in a nut-shell. 1832 Marryat N. Forster iii, He swam nut-shells in a puddle. 1870 M. Bridgman R. Lynne I. iv. 47 Miniature fleets of nutshells. |
† b. = nut n. 2. Obs. rare—1.
| c 1530 in Gutch Coll. Cur. II. 299 Item twoo Nutte Shells wheche I dyd receive amongst the Plate that came from Sent Albonnes, poiss. vij oz. |
2. As an example of something without value.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 23828 Þair spede es noght a nute-scell [Edinb. Þam sped noht worþe a not-scel]. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 20 Bot al nys worth a note schale. a 1529 Skelton Agst. Venemous Tongues Wks. 1843 I. 135 All is not worth a couple of nut shalis. a 1618 Raleigh Apology 21 Mr. Candish.., when he was without hope,..met a ship.., a thousand pounds to a Nutshell. 1687 R. L'Estrange Answ. Dissenter 26 'Tis the World to a Nut-shell, if he be one of That Party, that he is likewise One of Those Managers. 1697 Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. i. (1703) 115 Dont stake your life against a nutshell. |
b. As an example of something extremely small in size or scanty in amount.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 260 O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count my selfe a King of infinite space. 1675 Traherne Chr. Ethics 442 A magnanimous soul is alwaies awake. The whole globe of the earth is but a nut⁓shell in comparison of its enjoyments. 1786 Cowper Priv. Corresp. (1824) II. 72 As soon as breakfast is over, I retire to my nutshell of a summer-house. 1822 Scott Nigel xxiii, Sufficient single beer, old Pillory—and, as I take it, brewed at the rate of a nutshell of malt to a butt of Thames. 1846 Dickens Cricket on Hearth ii, A little cracked nutshell of a wooden house. 1861 Alexander Gosp. Jesus Christ xv. 202 Seeing..the world reduced to a nutshell and our own house or village swelled into a world. |
3. In allusions to the copy of Homer's Iliad mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist. vii. xxi) which was small enough to be enclosed in the shell of a nut.
| 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 16 The whole worlde is drawen in a mappe; Homers Iliades in a nutte shel. 1704 Swift T. Tub vii, I have sometimes heard of an Iliad in a Nut-shell. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. (1858) 137 It is an Iliad in a nutshell. 1865 Times 29 Apr., A whole Iliad of finance in a comparative nutshell. 1881 Dr. Gheist, An Autobiog. fr. Midlands 143 In short, it is the iliad of the controversy in a nutshell. |
4. In phrases denoting great condensation, brevity, or limitation.
| 1693 W. Freke Sel. Ess. i. 8 Can we reduce the school⁓men to a Nut-shell? 1760 Phil. Trans. LII. 67 The ground⁓work I present would lie in a nut-shell. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xxix, The simplest thing in the world. It lies in a nut-shell. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos (1877) I. xxi. 149 The difference was said to lie in a nutshell, but..Becket was inflexible. 1870 J. H. Newman Gram. Assent. ii. viii. 300 A great complex argument, which..cannot by any ingenuity..be packed into a nutshell. |
b. With in. In a few words; in a brief or condensed statement.
| 1831 T. L. Peacock Crotchet Castle ii, There, sir, is political economy in a nutshell. 1841 Thackeray Second Funeral Napoleon ii, In a nutshell, you have the whole matter. 1879 Browning Ned Bratts 210 You have my history in a nutshell. |
5. attrib., as nutshell brain, nutshell sort, nutshell truth.
| 1704 New Pract. Piety 38 Metaphysical Speculations of Nutshell Brains. 1852 J. H. Newman Scope Univ. Educ. Pref. p. xxvi, Extemporizing his lucid views, leading ideas, and nutshell truths for the breakfast-table. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxiii, The padded uniform may enclose a nutshell sort of heart. |
Hence ˈnutshell v., to sum up in a few words; to state concisely.
| 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi lviii. 570 The clerk nut-shelled the contrast between the former time and the present. 1892 Nat. Observer 17 Dec. 107/2 To add that the hour⁓glass or Victorian type of figures vies with the high-waisted or Empire is to nutshell the extreme ideals of the moment. 1900 Speaker 14 Apr. 45/1 He thus nutshells the tragic fate of the Stuarts. |