cock-and-bull story en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
Unknown. The phrase is noted as similar in meaning and form to French coq-à-l'âne (“satire, incoherent story”, literally “cock to the ass”) which was borrowed into Scots as cockalane. theories of origin Theories of the term's ultimate origin include allusions to stories which feature talking animals and that the term refers to gossip typical of what were historically two coaching inns, The Cock and The Bull, in Stony Stratford, England.
Meanings
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(idiomatic) A far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity.
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.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XIII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:Finding us easy in our ways, he […] told me a cock-and-bull story with the moral of another five francs for the narrator. The thing was palpably absurd; but I paid up, and at once dropped all friendliness of manner, and kept him in his place as an inferior with freezing British dignity. He saw in a moment that he had gone too far, and killed a willing horse; his face fell; I am sure he would have refunded if he could only have thought of a decent pretext.
1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Down the Oise: To Moy”, in An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 141:"Challenger was the man who came with some cock-and-bull story from South America." "What story?" "Oh, it was rank nonsense about some queer animals he had discovered."
1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| cock-and-bull stories | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Relateds
shaggy dog story · tall tale · whopper
Synonyms
Banbury story of a cock and a bull
Translations (25)
nn skrøne (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · nl onzinverhaal (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · nb røverhistorie (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · nb skrøne (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · ca conte d’indis (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · ru ска́зка про бе́лого бычка́ (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · fr conte de bonne femme (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · de (jemandem was) vom Pferd erzählen (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · de Münchhausengeschichte (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · tr kocakarı masalı (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · es cuento chino (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · pa ਗਪੌੜ (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · pt conto da carochinha (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · de Lügengeschichte (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · fr histoire à dormir debout (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · sv rövarhistoria (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · nn hyrgjesegn (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · hu dajkamese (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · nn røvarhistorie (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · pt conto (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · es chocoaventura (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · pt história pra boi dormir (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · is reyfarasaga (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · pl bajka o żelaznym wilku (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity) · ga scéal i mbarr bata (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity)