broad (brush) strokes

Vague or non-specific terms. I don't need every detail of the event—just tell me about it in broad brush strokes. Describe your idea in broad strokes, just so I can get a sense of it. No broad brush strokes—I want to hear absolutely everything about your trip to Tahiti!

broad strokes

broad brushstrokes

If you describe or show something in broad strokes or in broad brushstrokes, you describe or show only the main or general points or features of it and not the fine or exact details. The speech will lay out in broad strokes the two candidates' differing approaches towards how best to stimulate the economy. There's very little subtlety in the play. Its characters are painted in broad brushstrokes. Note: The image here is of an artist painting a picture roughly or quickly.