"the long and short" meaning in English

{
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      "expansion": "the long and short",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English coordinated pairs",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The speech went on for hours, but the long and short of it is that not much has changed since last year.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Omega:",
          "text": "Shepard: What's your relationship with Cerberus?\nZaeed: Easy. Cerberus is paying me a lot of money to help you on your mission. That's the long and short.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 May 1, Philip Haigh, “Network News: Pathing issues see NR ditch ECML December timetable”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 7:",
          "text": "NR explained: \"The long and short of it is that there is too much concern that the timetable wouldn't work in practice.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The gist; the essence or substance; the most important or salient features."
      ],
      "id": "en-the_long_and_short-en-noun-Nsfm~cf8",
      "links": [
        [
          "of",
          "of"
        ],
        [
          "gist",
          "gist"
        ],
        [
          "essence",
          "essence"
        ],
        [
          "substance",
          "substance"
        ],
        [
          "important",
          "important"
        ],
        [
          "salient",
          "salient"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(usually followed by of) The gist; the essence or substance; the most important or salient features."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "followed by of"
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "in a nutshell"
        },
        {
          "word": "long story short"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "digest"
        },
        {
          "word": "summary"
        },
        {
          "word": "upshot"
        },
        {
          "word": "the long and the short"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "usually"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "samaja sutʹ",
          "sense": "gist",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "самая суть"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "the long and short"
}

{
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        "1": "en",
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      "expansion": "the long and short",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "in a nutshell"
    },
    {
      "word": "long story short"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
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        "English terms with usage examples",
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        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Russian translations"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The speech went on for hours, but the long and short of it is that not much has changed since last year.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Omega:",
          "text": "Shepard: What's your relationship with Cerberus?\nZaeed: Easy. Cerberus is paying me a lot of money to help you on your mission. That's the long and short.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 May 1, Philip Haigh, “Network News: Pathing issues see NR ditch ECML December timetable”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 7:",
          "text": "NR explained: \"The long and short of it is that there is too much concern that the timetable wouldn't work in practice.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The gist; the essence or substance; the most important or salient features."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "of",
          "of"
        ],
        [
          "gist",
          "gist"
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        [
          "essence",
          "essence"
        ],
        [
          "substance",
          "substance"
        ],
        [
          "important",
          "important"
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        [
          "salient",
          "salient"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(usually followed by of) The gist; the essence or substance; the most important or salient features."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "followed by of"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "usually"
      ]
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  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "digest"
    },
    {
      "word": "summary"
    },
    {
      "word": "upshot"
    },
    {
      "word": "the long and the short"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "samaja sutʹ",
      "sense": "gist",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "самая суть"
    }
  ],
  "word": "the long and short"
}