cock-and-bull story

American  

[kok-uhn-bool] / ˈkɒk ənˈbʊl /

noun

1. an absurd, improbable story presented as the truth.

   Don't ask him about his ancestry unless you want to hear a cock-and-bull story.

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cock-and-bull story British  

noun

1. informal an obviously improbable story, esp a boastful one or one used as an excuse

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cock-and-bull story Cultural  

1. A story that is false: “When John came home at 3:30 a.m., he gave his mother some cock-and-bull story about having a flat tire on the way home.”

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cock and bull story Idioms  

1. An unbelievable tale that is intended to deceive; a tall tale. For example, Jack told us some cock and bull story about getting lost. This expression may come from a folk tale involving these two animals, or from the name of an English inn where travelers told such tales. W.S. Gilbert used it in The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), where Jack Point and Wilfred the Jailer make up a story about the hero's fictitious death: “Tell a tale of cock and bull, Of convincing detail full.” [c. 1600]

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Etymology

Origin of cock-and-bull story

First recorded in 1600–10; probably with original reference to some fable in which a cock and bull figure

Example Sentences

Though some writers and critics were unimpressed — John Dos Passos described it as “a cock-and-bull story about a whole lot of tourists getting drunk” — most found the novel stylistically invigorating and sociologically profound.

From Washington Post • Jun. 8, 2016

Even so, if my husband came to me with this confession, I’d probably be suspicious it was something of a cock-and-bull story and that he was withholding the most interesting details.

From Slate • May 23, 2013

For so long, any notion that England would have openers who consistently scored ODI hundreds would have been dismissed as a cock-and-bull story.

From The Guardian • Jun. 20, 2012

A pilot took off in the crate and landed it at Miami with an engine needlessly feathered and a cock-and-bull story that he had attacked the airfields.

From Time Magazine Archive

“How he could have fallen for this cock-and-bull story is beyond my comprehension except that he may have wanted to.”

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik