 Welcome to English in a minute. From home. Nuts grow in a hard protective shell, but what does it mean if someone says in a nutshell? Jonathan, how are those home improvement projects going? Horribly. In a nutshell, I currently have many holes in my walls and I have no running water. Oh jeez, can I do anything to help? Not unless you're a plumber. In a nutshell means to explain something briefly without providing details. You are giving people a quick summary of a complex situation or story. In fact, you could say every EIM is an idiom in a nutshell. And that's English in a minute.