"nuts and bolts" meaning in English

See nuts and bolts in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-nuts and bolts.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{en-noun|p}} nuts and bolts pl (plural only)
  1. (idiomatic) The basic inner workings of something; the fundamentals; that which makes something operate. Tags: idiomatic, plural, plural-only Synonyms: nitty-gritty, nuts-and-bolts [attributive] Synonyms (basic or fundamental workings): brass tacks Related terms: low-level [adjective] Translations (inner workings of something): rudiments [masculine, plural] (French), A und O [neuter] (German), азы́ (azý) [masculine, plural] (Russian)
    Sense id: en-nuts_and_bolts-en-noun-lggbuKUM Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English pluralia tantum

Download JSON data for nuts and bolts meaning in English (2.8kB)

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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It's really not so hard, once you know the nuts and bolts of the editing process.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Daniel E. Price, Islamic Political Culture, Democracy, and Human Rights: A Comparative Study, page 31",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Virginia A. Walter, Twenty-First-Century Kids, Twenty-First-Century Librarians, page 77",
          "text": "It also involves working with the nuts and bolts of management and leadership.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Antonella Cupillari, The Nuts and Bolts of Proofs: An Introduction to Mathematical Proofs, page 71",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The basic inner workings of something; the fundamentals; that which makes something operate."
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      "id": "en-nuts_and_bolts-en-noun-lggbuKUM",
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        "(idiomatic) The basic inner workings of something; the fundamentals; that which makes something operate."
      ],
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        {
          "tags": [
            "adjective"
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          "word": "low-level"
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          "sense": "basic or fundamental workings",
          "word": "brass tacks"
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          "word": "nitty-gritty"
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          "tags": [
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          "word": "nuts-and-bolts"
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          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "inner workings of something",
          "tags": [
            "masculine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "rudiments"
        },
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          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "inner workings of something",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "A und O"
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          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "azý",
          "sense": "inner workings of something",
          "tags": [
            "masculine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "азы́"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        {
          "text": "It's really not so hard, once you know the nuts and bolts of the editing process.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Daniel E. Price, Islamic Political Culture, Democracy, and Human Rights: A Comparative Study, page 31",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Virginia A. Walter, Twenty-First-Century Kids, Twenty-First-Century Librarians, page 77",
          "text": "It also involves working with the nuts and bolts of management and leadership.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Antonella Cupillari, The Nuts and Bolts of Proofs: An Introduction to Mathematical Proofs, page 71",
          "text": "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.",
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        "(idiomatic) The basic inner workings of something; the fundamentals; that which makes something operate."
      ],
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      "sense": "basic or fundamental workings",
      "word": "brass tacks"
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    {
      "word": "nitty-gritty"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "attributive"
      ],
      "word": "nuts-and-bolts"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
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      "sense": "inner workings of something",
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        "masculine",
        "plural"
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      "word": "A und O"
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      "lang": "Russian",
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      "sense": "inner workings of something",
      "tags": [
        "masculine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "азы́"
    }
  ],
  "word": "nuts and bolts"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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