What does "nutshell" mean?

Nutshell: Hence, a thing of little compass, or of little value.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Zoöl.) 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.

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