nutshell

noun

1. The shell that surrounds the kernel of a nut.

   “For men be now tratlers and tellers of tales; What tidings at Totnam, what newis in Wales, What ſhippis are ſailing to Scalis Malis? And all is not worth a couple of nut ſhalis.”

2. A short book summarizing an area of law.
3. A small boat; a boat considered small in comparison to the seas.

   “[A]t last the fishing-line stood straight out behind, and the stone weights jumped along the tops of the billows, while the seas - notwithstanding the guiding hand of the pilot sought to avoid them - broke over our little nutshell, and sent the spray high above mast and sail.”

verb

1. (transitive)To summarize (from the term in a nutshell).