Nutshell \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. (Zo["o]l.) A shell of the genus Nucula.

To be, 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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)