nuts and bolts

alternative nuts-and-bolts

1. idiomaticpluralplural onlyThe basic inner workings of something; the fundamentals; that which makes something operate.

   It's really not so hard, once you know the nuts and bolts of the editing process.

   4 more examples

   The Duke intended to make Brora the nerve centre of the railway, and built a large engineering works near the station in which he planned to manufacture everything from nuts and bolts to locomotives.

   1960 January 28, Iain D. O. Frew, “The Brora Colliery Tramway”, in Railway Magazine, page 56

   Perhaps those who analyze the prospects for government in an Islamic state based on the works of these theorists forget that, after the revolution, lofty ideals and Utopias are discarded for the nuts and bolts of day-to-day governing.

   1999, Daniel E. Price, Islamic Political Culture, Democracy, and Human Rights: A Comparative Study, page 31

   It also involves working with the nuts and bolts of management and leadership.

   2010, Virginia A. Walter, Twenty-First-Century Kids, Twenty-First-Century Librarians, page 77

   The information presented in the previous chapters gives the nuts and bolts of the most common and basic techniques used to prove the truth of mathematical results.

   2011, Antonella Cupillari, The Nuts and Bolts of Proofs: An Introduction to Mathematical Proofs, page 71

   Synonyms: brass tacks, nitty-gritty