/ dʒɪst; NAmE / noun
(usually the gist ) [ sing. ] gist (of sth) the main or general meaning of a piece of writing, a speech or a conversation :
to get (= understand) the gist of an argument
I missed the beginning of the lecture—can you give me the gist of what he said?
I'm afraid I don't quite follow your gist (= what you really mean) .
••
WORD ORIGIN
early 18th cent.: from Old French , third person singular present tense of gesir to lie, from Latin jacere . The Anglo-French legal phrase cest action gist this action lies denoted that there were sufficient grounds to proceed; gist was adopted into English denoting the grounds themselves.