gist
/dʒɪst
/noun [in singular]
1The substance or general meaning of a speech or text: it was hard to get the gist of Pedro’s talk...
- The minutiae of meetings remains private, but the general gist is that it was a problem and it has been addressed.
- The general gist of the plots are all protagonists love and lose out.
- I can remember the general gist of them, but nothing specific.
Synonyms
essence, substance, quintessence, main idea/theme, central idea/theme, nub, core, heart, heart of the matter, nucleus, kernel, pith, marrow, meat, burden, crux, important point;
thrust, direction, drift, sense, meaning, significance, import
informal nitty-gritty
2 Law The real point of an action: damage is the gist of the action and without it the plaintiff must fail...
- The gist of the tort of unlawful interference is the intentional infliction of economic harm.
- Where damage is the gist of the action, as in negligence, the claimant must prove actual loss.
- The substance of the libel is true: the question is whether what is stated inaccurately is of the gist of the libel.
Origin
Early 18th century: from Old French, third person singular present tense of gesir 'to lie', from Latin jacere. The Anglo-French legal phrase cest action gist 'this action lies' denoted that there were sufficient grounds to proceed; gist was adopted into English denoting the grounds themselves (sense 2).