{{Short description|Outer shell of a nut}} {{Other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} [[File:Whole walnut kernel and shell.jpg|right|thumb|A walnut kernel and its shell]] A '''nutshell''' is the outer shell of a nut. 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, and as a paint thickening agent. Shells from pecans, almonds, Brazil nuts, acorns, and most other nuts are useful in composting.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg1113573723935.html|title=Composting Nut shells|work=GardenWeb|access-date=7 November 2010}}</ref> Their high porosity makes them also ideal in the production of activated carbon by pyrolysis. Shells can also be used as loose-fill packing material, to protect fragile items in shipping.
==Idiomatic usage== <!-- "Nut graph" links here. --> 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[shell]: ''"in nuce inclusam Iliadem Homeri carmen in membrana scriptum tradi"''
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{wiktionary}} *{{cite web|url=http://www.gardenguides.com/87421-compost-peanut-shells.html|title=How to Compost Peanut Shells|publisher=gardenguides.com}} *{{Merriam-Webster|Nutshell}}
Category:Plant anatomy Category:Metaphors referring to plants Category:Non-timber forest products *Nutshell
{{botany-stub}}