What does three dots mean in quotes

Not entirely sure, please help.

Need to know if putting three or so dots before you're quoting means there is more of the sentence, but you have taken it out as it isn't needed?

I apologize if this doesn't make a lot of sense, I don't know how else to explain it and really need to know what the three dots mean.

Solution 1:

It's supposed to mean that a part of the quote is not relevant to the passage, and was omitted by the one who quoted it. Some caution is warranted when an ellipsis is encountered, however, as it is not unknown for it to be misused, for example, by making the quote seem to say

"He is absolutely ... [the] man for the job!"

when the original actually read

"He is absolutely not the best man for the job!"

Solution 2:

If the quote was as such:

'Nancy stated she detested the forest as it contained many beetles scattered on the floor, she even stayed at home'

This could be shortened to:

'Nancy stated she detested the forest [...] she even stayed at home'

Whereby the use of the ellipses within square brackets denotes omitted words.