n.
1.the essential qualities or characteristics by which something is recognized
2.a causal agent creating and controlling things in the universe
3.the natural physical world including plants and animals and landscapes etc.
4.the complex of emotional and intellectual attributes that determine a person's characteristic actions and reactions
5.a particular type of thing
Idiom of the Day
long and the short of it
all the facts, the whole story, a brief summing up of something
I phoned my friend and he told me the long and the short of why he got fired.