A nutshell is the outer shell of a

nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Com ...

. Most nutshells are inedible and are removed before eating the nut meat inside. It covers and protects the kernel, which may be edible.

Usage

Most nutshells are useful to some extent, depending on the circumstances. Walnut shells can be used for cleaning and polishing, as a filler in

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

, and as a paint thickening agent. Shells from pecans,

almonds The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of th ...

, Brazil nuts,

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...

s, and most other nuts are useful in composting. Their high porosity makes them also ideal in the production of

activated carbon Activated carbon, also called activated charcoal, is a form of carbon commonly used to filter contaminants from water and air, among many other uses. It is processed (activated) to have small, low-volume pores that increase the surface area avail ...

by pyrolysis. Shells can also be used as loose-fill packing material, to protect fragile items in shipping.

Idiomatic usage

The expression "in a nutshell" (of a story, proof, etc.) means "in essence", metaphorically alluding to the fact that the essence of the nut - its edible part - is contained inside its shell. The expression further gave rise to the journalistic term '' nut graph'', short for ''nutshell paragraph''. In '' Hamlet'' (Act 2, Scene 2) the title character exclaims: "O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a King of infinite space". Pliny the Elder mentioned in the encyclopedic Naturalis historia a report by Cicero saying that a handwritten version of the '' Iliad'' by Homer would have fit in a nut

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

''"in nuce inclusam Iliadem Homeri carmen in membrana scriptum tradi''

References

External links

* * Plant anatomy Metaphors Non-timber forest products Edible nuts and seeds {{plant-stub