the long and (the) short of it

noun phrase

—used when making a statement that is brief and that tells someone only the most important parts of something

I could give you a lot of reasons for my decision, but the long and short of it is that I just don't want to go.

Examples of the long and (the) short of it in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So [college] ended up being good for something else, and that’s the long and the short of it. —Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 July 2024

Drug shortage reform: the long and short of it Republicans and Democrats alike want to stop drug shortages from happening. —Rachel Cohrs, STAT, 28 Sep. 2023

So, to borrow a phrase coined by Shakespeare, the long and the short of it is that the Globe Theatre has paved a brick-lane path that evokes history but isn’t a prisoner to it, which allows the crew and players the opportunity to interpret hallowed material in novel ways. —Joe Lynch, Billboard, 2 Aug. 2023

But the long and the short of it is that McCarthy is going to likely need the support of the entire caucus to obtain the gavel, and his historic troubles keeping the House Freedom Caucus in his corner may prove to be his undoing. —Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 11 Nov. 2022

Your niece is going to make her own decisions, and that’s the long and short of it. —Annie Lane, oregonlive, 5 Apr. 2022

But the long and short of it is that a drier atmosphere in a warming world becomes thirstier, sucking more and more moisture from soils and vegetation. —Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 17 June 2021

In the long and the short of it, rod lengths run from 6 ½ feet to 16 feet for the longest target-jigging model. —Colin Moore, Field & Stream, 19 Nov. 2020