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.