long story short

English

Etymology

A reduced form of to cut a long story short and to make a long story short.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Adverb

long story short

1. (idiomatic) Introducing a short version of, or simply the conclusion of, a relevant story.

   Anyway, long story short, I totally screwed up today.

   • 1981, “To Cut a Long Story Short”, in Journeys to Glory, performed by Spandau Ballet:

     Sitting on a park bench / Years away from fighting / Ah, to cut a long story short, I lost my mind

   • 1994, Eric Bogosian, Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead, Theatre Communications Group, →ISBN, page 40:

     So anyway, long story short . . . Kenny was always gambling. And six years ago, he bought this lottery ticket and he won. Not much. A million bucks. After taxes, that’s like five hundred thousand dollars. I’m thinking party time.

   • 1999, Dennis Hensley, Misadventures in the (213)‎^[1], HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 74:

     “So long story short,” Damon continues, obviously enjoying his newfound status as Magic Kingdom iconoclast, “it got back to the director what I did and then it went all the way to [Michael] Eisner’s office. […] ”

   • 2005 March 1, “My Best Laid Plans”, in Scrubs, season 4, episode 19 (television production), spoken by Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins):

     Long story short, I'm on the hook for sending Trong Tri Kelso to college and he doesn't want to go to a state school.

Related terms

• it's a long story

Translations

Introducing a short version of, or simply the conclusion of, an involved story

• Arabic: القصة بإختصار
• Armenian: կարճ ասած (karč asac)
• Azerbaijani: uzun sözün qısası, sözün qısası
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 長話短說／长话短说 (coeng⁴ waa⁶ dyun² syut³)

  Mandarin: 長話短說／长话短说 (zh) (chánghuàduǎnshuō)

• Dutch: lang verhaal kort
• Finnish: lyhyesti sanottuna
• French: pour faire court, en résumé (fr), en bref (fr)
• German: kurz gesagt, kurz und gut, lange Rede, kurzer Sinn (de)
• Hungarian: egy szó mint száz (hu), elég az hozzá, hogy
• Italian: in somma, per tagliare corto, per farla breve
• Persian: خلاصه ، القصه ، آخر سر اینکه
• Portuguese: trocando em miúdos
• Russian: коро́че говоря́ (koróče govorjá)
• Spanish: en resumen, resumiendo (es), para hacerla corta (Latin America), para no hacerla larga (Latin America), para no hacerte el cuento largo (Latin America), para no estirarlo demasiado (Argentina, colloquial), para abreviar, abreviando (es), yendo al grano, al grano,
• Swedish: kort och gott (sv)
• Turkish: uzun lafın kısası (tr)
• Ukrainian: коро́тше ка́жучи (korótše kážučy)

See also

• the long and short