cock-and-bull story

English

Etymology

See the discussion page.

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Noun

cock-and-bull story (plural cock-and-bull stories)

(idiomatic) A far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 13:
  The grinning landlord, as well as the boarders, seemed amazingly tickled at the sudden friendship which had sprung up between me and Queequeg—especially as Peter Coffin’s cock and bull stories about him had previously so much alarmed me concerning the very person whom I now companied with.

Synonyms

Banbury story of a cock and a bull

Translations

a far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity

Dutch: onzinverhaal n
French: histoire à dormir debout f, conte de bonne femme (fr) m
German: Lügengeschichte (de) f, Münchhausengeschichte f; (jemandem was) vom Pferd erzählen (to tell someone a cock-and-bull story)
Hungarian: dajkamese (hu)

Irish: scéal i mbarr bata m
Russian: ска́зка про бе́лого бычка́ (ru) (skázka pro bélovo byčká) (a tale of a white (young) bull/calf)
Turkish: kocakarı masalı (tr)

See also

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.