gist

plural gists

1. countableThe main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter; the crux, the heart, the pith.

   I don't wanna belabor my point; I'm sure you get the gist.

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   Should they live and build their church in the American wilderness, their worst dangers would rise in and among themselves rather than outside. That was the gist of the lesson from their pastor and "wellwiller" John Robinson.

   1948, Carl Sandburg, “Store We Up therefore Patience”, in Remembrance Rock, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, →OCLC, part 2, page 103

   He was handing her something in an envelope, and she was saying “Oh, Jeeves, you've saved a human life,” and he was saying “Not at all, miss.” The gist, of course, escaped me, but I had no leisure to probe into gists.

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

   The gists of the reports, however, their logic, their structural coherence, are molded by a concern to reconstruct the past, by antiquarian interest.

   1988, Baruch Halpern, “Sisera and Old Lace: The Case of Deborah and Yael”, in The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History, San Francisco, Calif.: Harper & Row, →ISBN, part 1 (Romance and Historiography: Two Cases of Historiography in Microcosm), page 97

   And the work was going very well. I was really just vomiting images like spoiled sushi (that may be an ill-considered metaphor, but you get my gist).

   1994 July 15 (first performance), Nicky Silver, “The Food Chain”, in Etiquette and Vitriol, The Food Chain and Other Plays, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Communications Group, published November 1996, →ISBN, scene i (Amanda), page 10

   I don't remember his exact words, but the gist of it was that he wanted it all for nothing, as quickly as possible, without any effort.

   2003, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter V, in David McDuff, transl., Crime and Punishment, revised edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, part 2, page 183

   Synonyms: essence, quintessence, thrust

2. countabledatedlawThe essential ground for action in a lawsuit, without which there is no cause of action; the gravamen.

   [H]e is guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable. This is the great giſt of the charge againſt him.

   1791 August 3, [Edmund Burke], An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 30

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   [T]heſe charges, of a traiterous or felonious intent, are the points and very giſt of the indictment, and muſt be anſvvered directly, by the general negative, not guilty; […]

   1769, William Blackstone, “Of Plea, and Issue”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book IV (Of Public Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 333

   But it is observable that the substance or gist of the action is not always the principal cause of the plaintiff's complaint in point of fact, nor that on which he recovers all or the greatest part of his damages. It frequently happens that upon that part of his declaration which contains the substance or gist of the action he recovers nominal damages, and he gets his principal satisfaction on account of matters altogether collateral thereto.

   1839, John Bouvier, “GIST”, in A Law Dictionary, […], volumes I (A–K), Philadelphia, Pa.: T. & J. W. Johnson, […], successors to Nicklin & Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 445, column 1

   Naturally, therefore, conceiving that the gite of the lawyer's reasoning was to defend the want of resemblance as an admitted fact, which it would be useless to deny, the worthy magistrate closed the pleadings, and gave sentence against Mr Whelp, the plaintiff.

   [1859, F. Laun [pseudonym], “The King of Hayti. From the German. Chapter III. ‘In the Second Place’—Dinner is on the Table.”, in Thomas De Quincey, transl., Speculations Literary and Philosophic: With German Tales and Other Narrative Papers (De Quincey’s Works; XII), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 41

3. NigeriauncountableGossip, rumour; (countable) an instance of this.
4. countableuncountablecomputingA sharable snippet of source code, especially on the version controlled pastebin-hosting site GitHub Gist.

   For a simple illustration of the issue, take a look at this gist.

   2014 November 20, Colin Eberhardt, “Swift Initialization and the Pain of Optionals”, in Scott Logic

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   Every gist created is a tiny repository. You can update gists and see the history using git log. You can download gists, hack on the repository, […]

   2016 February 8, Chris Dawson, Ben Straub, “Gists and the Gist API” (chapter 2), in Building Tools with GitHub, O'Reilly

   For example, findOrCreate can be implemented as a before-hook on the service's get method. See this gist for an example of how to implement this in a before-hook.

   a. 2023, “FAQ”, in Feathers

present singular third person gists · participle present gisting · participle past gisted · past gisted

1. transitiveTo extract and present the main ideas or substance, or the most essential parts of (a document, piece of writing, etc.); to abridge, to summarize.

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   There are two general ways of getting information, and these two general ways may be summed up in this: take one branch of study and its principles are all gisted, they have been gisted by the accumulated thought of years gone by. These gisted thoughts are axioms, or received principles, and the pupils of the day take these axioms or principles, and accept them as facts, and apply them to this, that or the other individual case.

   1872 August 7, J. H. Hoose, “Professional Instruction in Normal Schools”, in The Addresses and Journal of Proceedings of the National Educational Association, Session of the Year 1872, at Boston, Massachusetts, Peoria, Ill.: N. C. Nason, […] [for the National Education Association], published 1873, →OCLC, page 201

   Synonyms: condense, précis

2. NigeriaintransitiveTo talk idly; chat; also, to gossip.

plural gists · alternative gest

1. obsoleteA stop for lodging or rest in a journey, or the place where this happens; a rest.

   Theſe Quailes have their ſet giſts, to vvit, ordinarie reſting and baiting places.

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book X.] Of Cranes, Storkes, Swans, Quailes, the Glotis, and Strange Birds of Other Countries.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 282

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   But the Conſul after that he had intelligence that Perſeus had croſſed over to Samothracia, departed from Pella, and at the fourth giſt and journey that he made, came to Amphipolis.

   1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book XLIV]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, page 958

plural GISTs

1. abbreviationinitialismmedicineInitialism of gastrointestinal stromal tumor.