English idiom: Make a long story short

Ahmad Osmani Idioms Leave a comment 15,827 Views

English idiom; Make a long story short

The idiom that is going to be discussed here in this post is: Make a long story short, so notice the following example to start understanding the meaning of this popular idiom:

James: How was the meeting with the client?
Amelia: Well, they had some concerns regarding the payment method, but before that, they were just asking about the quality of our products. We told them to give them some samples to be sure about our products, and then they can decide about the trade.
James: And to make a long story short?
Amelia: Finally they signed the deal.

As you can see from the above example, Amelia was talking about something related to her word with many details and James asks her to provide him the outcome of what happens and not to say so many details, so he so he uses the phrase ‘make a long story short’ to tell her about this fact.

Make a long story short
Cut a long story short
Long story short
meaning:

To shorten
To summarize
To get to the point
To shorten something
To get to the bottom line
To tell only the main points
To narrate something very shortly
To leave out details of a long narration
To summarize some information in short one
To abbreviate a long explanation into a short form
To give a short version or only the conclusion of a long story
To give only the basic facts of something instead of a full explanation

Idiom #255

Make a long story short

To know more about this idiom let’s check the definition of this idiom in some great dictionaries:

To make a long story short:

Oxford:
It is used to end an account of events quickly.

Cambridge:
US- It is used when you do not tell all the details

Dictionary.com:
Get to the point

Longman:
Spoken – it used to say that you are only going to mention the main facts of something
It is used when you only give the main point of something you are talking about, and not all the other details

Related words and phrases:
boiled down, brief, compendious, concise, epigrammatic, in a nutshell, laconic, meaty, pithy, pointed, short and sweet, succinct, terse, to the point

Antonyms:
Big, large, lengthy, long, loose, slack, unabridged, uncondensed

Origin:
Although the idea of abbreviating a long explanation is ancient, this precise phrase has been used since the 1800s. One of the oldest written versions of this phrase goes back to 1857 when Henry David Thoreau used it in a letter:
“Not that the story needs to be long, but it will take a long time to make it short.”

Photo

Let’s take a look at some examples of this idiom to understand it better:
• Long story short, he got fired from the company.
• To make a long story short, he is going to meet her tomorrow.
• To make a long story short, they decided not to separate just for the sake of the kid.
• To cut a long story short, it was a horrific experience but it was worth the cost.
• Long story short, despite all the problems, they finally got married and they feel happy now.
• I was a waitress in a restaurant and one day he came there, to cut a long story short, it is how we met.
• To cut a long story short, I fell in love with her and finally we got married.