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gist
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show 111 more with this conextual meaning
  • The gist of his reply was: "I have to study too, you know, and if I can't do that in the afternoons, I won't be able to fit it in at all."   (source)
    gist = main point
  • Of course it was all in Spanish, I had to get it secondhand, but that was the general gist.   (source)
    gist = the main point(s) of a more detailed matter
  • They tried to keep the tale of Askew's den from Grandpa, but he got the gist of it.   (source)
  • But the gist of the story, as they knew it in the end, was as follows.   (source)
  • He's almost come in twice, he signed, knowing that at best Claude would only gist it.†   (source)
  • Her eyes glazed over when Willow spoke about new drug-resistant bacteria, but she got the gist of the whole thing.†   (source)
  • What I looked for him to say was that he didn't believe anything Daddy had said, didn't believe the unspoken gist of his denunciation, either—that I was a worthless and unlovable person.†   (source)
  • We don't have everyone on Demoxie yet, but you get the gist.†   (source)
  • I'm a hematolo-gist, not a detective.†   (source)
  • Dorian's Eyllwe was just competent enough that he understood the gist of it to be: "His Highness certainly knows how to keep women entertained."†   (source)
  • I used the time in between to read about mushrooms and talk to mycolo gists.†   (source)
  • But I'd heard enough to get the gist of it; and I knew it had specifically to do with us Hailsham students.†   (source)
  • The gist—once I got on my knees and fit the pieces together—was this: she'd loved seeing me, our time in the city had meant a lot to her, who in the world could have picked such a beautiful necklace for her?†   (source)
  • Drawing was not one of Chacko's strengths, but Comrade Pillai got the general gist.†   (source)
  • I quickly picked up the gist of the argument.†   (source)
  • Some of my more political colleagues may tell you yes, that every work is either part of the socialproblem or part of the solution (they'll give it to you with rather more subtlety than that, but that's the gist).†   (source)
  • That was the gist of his first long conversation that day with Vanger.†   (source)
  • I didn't need to read more than the first two or three lines to get the basic gist: the president was too big of a coward to come out of hiding after a failed assassination attempt, so he sent his freak baby to do the dirty work for him.†   (source)
  • A little grease for the wheel keeps the car running, if you get my gist.†   (source)
  • Give me the gist.†   (source)
  • Piper couldn't hear him, but the gist was obvious: We need to kill those Greeks.'†   (source)
  • If we are going to do it right, the gist of what I'm saying, C. J., is that we cannot have amateurs in key positions.†   (source)
  • The basic gist was that Monica and Kristy had met a couple of guys at a day catering job while I'd been at the library who were, while not extraordinary, in Kristy's words, "promising."†   (source)
  • He turns, assesses, understands the gist of what he sees.†   (source)
  • I can just make out the gist of it, something about the "scandalous secrets of girls' boarding schools!"†   (source)
  • Each site operates a bit differently, but the gist is this: You compose a personal ad about yourself that typically includes a photo, vital statistics, your income range, level of education, likes and dislikes, and so on.†   (source)
  • We just need the gist of it.†   (source)
  • I got the gist.†   (source)
  • For all his disposition to keep hands off the personal development of his friends, perhaps on account of it, Gray made an excellent teacher, and these writings—the garnered grain, the gist, of his own wide culture—were the very sinews for the race Johnnie was setting out on.†   (source)
  • Quentyn understood enough to get the gist.†   (source)
  • "Some people are beginning to say you are a prima donna," was the gist of it.†   (source)
  • The gist of it was: "Should the U.S. military intervene in Haiti?†   (source)
  • Then, he and Major Mordecai Gist and no more than 250 Marylanders attacked Cornwallis in a headlong, valiant effort to cover the retreat of the others and perhaps even break through the redcoats who had established their line on the Gowanus Road beside a stone farmhouse.†   (source)
  • Cristian got the gist: "You got on the really wrong bus, kid."†   (source)
  • From the gist of his introductory remarks, however, Mr. O'Hanlon made plain to her who he was—he was an ordinary, God-fearing man just like any ordinary man, who had quit his job to devote his full time to the preservation of segregation.†   (source)
  • He told the creatures the gist of it all in a long run-on sentence, but he felt self-conscious telling them his dreams, no matter how vivid they had seemed.†   (source)
  • A few of the languages here are just beyond me—but I can still get the gist of it, so what does it matter if we miss a few details?†   (source)
  • That's the gist of it.†   (source)
  • He caught the gist, that she was excited about the writer's potential.†   (source)
  • But that was the gist," he added impatiently.†   (source)
  • Much of what he was saying went right over my head, but I thought I caught its gist.†   (source)
  • A little modern, but the gist of the idea comes across.†   (source)
  • The gist is simple: Put down your guns and go home.†   (source)
  • Lolla-Wossiky barely caught the gist of what Thrower said.†   (source)
  • Kindly get on with it'—that was the gist of it.†   (source)
  • But any schoolboy who gists a D had better learn.†   (source)
  • Alas, we were not yet sufficiently en rapport, and this time I did not even get the gist of what he was saying.†   (source)
  • The gist of her tale would be lost on me, but Fannie didn't bother about the ear she was telling it to; she just liked telling.†   (source)
  • Quite suddenly Mary got the gist of what she was saying.†   (source)
  • Articulation was not a personal forte, and I often had to backtrack, slow down, or repeat something again and again before they caught the gist of what I said.†   (source)
  • The improbable gist of this story consisted in the following: Dudorov had been drafted into the army by mistake.†   (source)
  • He got the gist of it and shook his head mournfully.†   (source)
  • She has no way of knowing that what occurred in his crate was a reenactment of what happened in her own, and in almost every other container on the plane. Fear, misgivings, questions rarely asked, and stories rarely told. The details are different, of course, as are the players, but the gist is the same.   (source)
    gist = essential experience
  • The basic gist was this: ...   (source)
    gist = the main point(s) of a more detailed matter
  • ...she caught the gist of what went on.   (source)
  • the gist of the prosecutor's argument
  • That is the gist of the question.   (source)
  • I have hunted up the guide-books, and the gist of what they say is this: "They are there, but how they got there is a mystery."   (source)
  • That has been the gist of the parables which I have tried to adapt to the comprehension of my parishioners.   (source)
  • She did not use exactly these words, but that was the gist of it.†   (source)
  • He wants me to vanish from the scene, is that the gist of it?†   (source)
  • "What are you talking about?" asked Chaol, and she explained the gist of their conversation.†   (source)
  • Chaol, thankfully, caught the general gist of it.†   (source)
  • The gist of it: she's here to see how it goes.†   (source)
  • It took me a minute to get the gist of the information.†   (source)
  • Wasn't that the gist of what that man on the plane had said?†   (source)
  • The morning after, Mordecai Gist and nine others crossed into the camps.†   (source)
  • Despite the hefty legalese, I understand the gist of the six-page document.†   (source)
  • Here's the gist of it, Bella.†   (source)
  • But yeah, that's about the gist of it.†   (source)
  • It's a redaction, but you get the gist.†   (source)
  • Langdon had hung enough NE PAS DERANGER signs on hotel room doors to catch the gist of the captain's orders.†   (source)
  • Well, you told me the gist before.†   (source)
  • The gist of the story was that Bishop was a popular folk leader who had deposed an insane dictator, a UFO nutcase who had devoted part of the meagre national budget to chasing flying saucers.†   (source)
  • But his general gist seemed to be close to his lordship's, concluding with a call for a freezing of German reparation payments and the withdrawal of French troops from the Ruhr region.†   (source)
  • The gist seemed to be that she didn't believe he loved New York, and she wasn't sure if this would really help him.†   (source)
  • Although of course I made no deliberate attempt to overhear, I could not help but get the gist of what was being said, and was surprised by the extent of my employer's knowledge, which, despite the occasional infelicity, betrayed a deep enthusiasm for English ways.†   (source)
  • Across the chasm, empousai shouted commands in a language Frank didn't know, but the gist was obvious.†   (source)
  • The gist, yes.†   (source)
  • A couple moving past laughed and made a derisive comment in Czech; Clary couldn't understand it, but suspected the gist was Get a room.†   (source)
  • But usually both Charlie and Nancy would pick up the phone, and usually Deo got the gist of what Charlie said.†   (source)
  • The gist of it went like this: "That's the only thing that would really help me, just to heal my brain, my mind, would be to sit down in a classroom.†   (source)
  • He smiled at what he evidently took to be my sense of humor, and the gist of his reply was that this was a pretty idea, but it went beyond the bounds of credibility.†   (source)
  • It was some time before the white boy cottoned on; only when the Aboriginal scooped together a ridge in the sand to represent the hills, and traced a trail from one side to the other, did he get the gist of the message.†   (source)
  • On the other hand, from the few questions he asked Yurii Andreie-vich, he gathered the gist of his troubles at once, and then and there, between one corner and another as they walked along the narrow, twisting, crowded street, he worked out a practical plan to rescue him.†   (source)
  • "Caribou are coming; the wolf says sol" I got the gist of this, but not much more than the gist, and it was not until we returned to the cabin and I again had Mike's services as an interpreter that I learned the full story.†   (source)
  • The gist of his argument is this: that we have been completely disinterested.†   (source)
  • Only as the sermon proceeded did it become apparent to the congregation that, by a skillful oratorical device, Father Paneloux had launched at them, like a fisticuff, the gist of his whole discourse.†   (source)
  • I had the distinct impression, rather, that all this was a prelude and a preparation, that everything was pushing eagerly forward, that the gist of the matter was to come.†   (source)
  • The gist of his argument was always the same: that he was a stranger to our town and, that being so, his case deserved special consideration.†   (source)
  • The gist of this strange communication gave Lily a distinct thrill of pleasure.†   (source)
  • "That seems to be the gist of it," I said, rereading the letter.†   (source)
  • We will not reproduce his speech word for word, but will only summarize the gist of it.†   (source)
  • Intermittently she caught the gist of his sentences and supplied the rest from her subconscious, as one picks up the striking of a clock in the middle with only the rhythm of the first uncounted strokes lingering in the mind.†   (source)
  • She told it briefly, remembering especially the gist and substance of what the officer and scout had said.†   (source)
  • The gist of the affair, which became clear to me gradually, was in this, that he regarded himself as entitled to some money in exchange for the girl.†   (source)
  • 'In this simple form of assent to his will lies the whole gist of the situation; their creed, his truth; and the testimony to that faithfulness which made him in his own eyes the equal of the impeccable men who never fall out of the ranks.†   (source)
  • So wonderful an adventure, so vast a number of hoofed creatures, so strangely trooping up out of the dusty river brakes to envelop her, so different when she and they and the horses had become accustomed to one another—these ideas were the gist of her thoughts.†   (source)
  • She paused as if she felt it indecorous to speak of her pregnancy before Pierre, though the gist of the matter lay in that.†   (source)
  • Dorothea told him that she had seen Lydgate, and recited the gist of her conversation with him about the Hospital.†   (source)
  • That is the gist of my article.†   (source)
  • Here's the gist of the matter in two words: you are to rise on tiptoe, as I tell you; in that way you will be able to reach the pocket of the manikin, you will rummage it, you will pull out the purse that is there,—and if you do all this without our hearing the sound of a bell, all is well: you shall be a vagabond.†   (source)
  • I knew that she would perhaps be muddled and not take it all in exactly, but I knew, too, that she would grasp the gist of it, very well indeed.†   (source)
  • But here lies the gist of the matter.†   (source)
  • He declares in ze manifessto zat he cannot fiew wiz indifference ze danger vreatening Russia and zat ze safety and dignity of ze Empire as vell as ze sanctity of its alliances..." he spoke this last word with particular emphasis as if in it lay the gist of the matter.†   (source)
  • He remembered how carefully and at what length everything relating to form and procedure was discussed at those meetings, and how sedulously and promptly all that related to the gist of the business was evaded.†   (source)
  • The gist of it is that I haven't got a story left in my head, Biff.†   (source)
  • Mr Bloom thoroughly acquiesced in the general gist of this though the mystical finesse involved was a bit out of his sublunary depth still he felt bound to enter a demurrer on the head of simple, promptly rejoining: —Simple?†   (source)
  • In sum an infinite great fall of rain and all refreshed and will much increase the harvest yet those in ken say after wind and water fire shall come for a prognostication of Malachi's almanac (and I hear that Mr Russell has done a prophetical charm of the same gist out of the Hindustanish for his farmer's gazette) to have three things in all but this a mere fetch without bottom of reason for old crones and bairns yet sometimes they are found in the right guess with their queerities no telling how.†   (source)
  • List close my scholars dear,
    Doctrines, politics and civilization exurge from you,
    Sculpture and monuments and any thing inscribed anywhere are tallied in you,
    The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the records
    reach is in you this hour, and myths and tales the same,
    If you were not breathing and walking here, where would they all be?†   (source)
  • — most of you have now successfully Vanished your snails and even those who were left with a certain amount of shell have got the gist of the spell.   (source)
    gist = main point
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