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vocabulary

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gist

used in a sentence

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Definition

the main point(s) of a more detailed matter

or:

law: the grounds for a legal action

Just tell me the gist of the matter.

gist = main point(s)

It's a 300 page report, but the gist of it is that the plan won't work.

gist = main point

the gist of the prosecutor's argument
That is the gist of the question.
London, Jack -- The Night-Born
That has been the gist of the parables which I have tried to adapt to the comprehension of my parishioners.
de Balzac, Honore -- The Country Doctor
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."
Twain, Mark -- The Innocents Abroad
Connor might not know all the particulars, but he knows the gist.
Neal Shusterman -- Unwind

gist = main points

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."
Anne Frank -- The Diary of a Young Girl

gist = main point

Of course it was all in Spanish, I had to get it secondhand, but that was the general gist.
Barbara Kingsolver -- The Bean Trees

gist = the main point(s) of a more detailed matter

We don't have time to go through it all, but I'll tell you the gist of it.
James Dashner -- The Maze Runner

gist = the main point(s) of a more detailed matter

...she caught the gist of what went on.
Nicholas Sparks -- The Guardian

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.
David Almond -- Kit's Wilderness

gist = the main point(s) of a more detailed matter

But the gist of the story, as they knew it in the end, was as follows.
C.S. Lewis -- Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

gist = the main point(s) of a more detailed matter

She didn't say exactly those words, but I got the gist of it.
Nicholas Sparks -- A Walk to Remember

gist = the main point(s)

The basic gist was this: ...
Sarah Dessen -- Someone Like You

gist = the main point(s) of a more detailed matter

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.
Neal Shusterman -- Unwind

gist = essential experience

Quite suddenly Mary got the gist of what she was saying.
James Vance Marshall -- Walkabout
She did not use exactly these words, but that was the gist of it.
Margaret Atwood -- Alias Grace
Here's the gist of it, Bella.
Stephenie Meyer -- Eclipse
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.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Notes from the Underground

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