Nut″shell′ (?), n. 1. The shell or hard external covering in which the kernel of a nut is inclosed.
2. Hence, a thing of little compass, or of little value.
3. (Zoöl.) A shell of the genus Nucula.
Tobe, or 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.