gist
To extract and present the main ideas or substance, or the most essential parts ofTo extract and present the main ideas or substance, or the most essential parts of (a document, piece of writing, etc.); to abridge, to summarize.
Recorded: Dvortygirl, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Meaning
2 senses(transitive)To extract and present the main ideas or substance, or the most essential parts of (a document, piece of writing, etc.); to abridge, to summarize.
(Nigeria, intransitive)To talk idly; chat; also, to gossip.
Examples
15 sentencesI got the gist of what he was saying.
ruЯ понял суть его слов. — odexed
Tom only got the gist of what Mary was saying.
I get the gist of it.
That's the gist of it, I think.
I told him the gist of my thought.
Origin
The noun is derived from Old French gist, a noun use of the third person singular indicatiThe noun is derived from Old French gist, a noun use of the third person singular indicative of gesir (“to lie down”) (modern French gésir; compare Anglo-Norman (cest) action gist (literally “(law) (this) action lies”)), from Latin iacēre, the present active infinitive of iaceō (“to lie down, lie prostrate, recline”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”) (probably in the sense of something being thrown down).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
gists, gisting, gisted, gistedSynonyms
2 synonymsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.