gist
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
gist /dʒɪst/
▶noun
- 1 the substance or general meaning of a speech or text.
- 2 Law the real point of an action.
– origin C18: from OFr., third person sing. pres. tense of gesir ‘to lie’, in Anglo-Fr. legal phr. cest action gist ‘this action lies’, denoting that there were sufficient grounds to proceed.
'gist' also found in these Oxford entries:
