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A far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: idiomatic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Banbury story of a cock and a bull
Antonyms: none provided
an interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: fairytale, fairy tale, fairy story, song and dance
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: fib, story, tale, tarradiddle, taradiddle
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.
Across languages
Translations
25 source translations are retained for this English entry.
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Catalan:
conte d’indis
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Dutch:
onzinverhaal
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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French:
histoire à dormir debout
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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French:
conte de bonne femme
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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German:
Lügengeschichte
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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German:
Münchhausengeschichte
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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German:
(jemandem was) vom Pferd erzählen
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Hungarian:
dajkamese
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Icelandic:
reyfarasaga
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Irish:
scéal i mbarr bata
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Norwegian Bokmål:
røverhistorie
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Norwegian Bokmål:
skrøne
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Norwegian Nynorsk:
røvarhistorie
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Norwegian Nynorsk:
skrøne
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Norwegian Nynorsk:
hyrgjesegn
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Polish:
bajka o żelaznym wilku
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Portuguese:
história pra boi dormir
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Portuguese:
conto da carochinha
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Portuguese:
conto
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Punjabi:
ਗਪੌੜ
(gapauṛ)
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Russian:
ска́зка про бе́лого бычка́
(skázka pro bélovo byčká)
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Spanish:
chocoaventura
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Spanish:
cuento chino
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Swedish:
rövarhistoria
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
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Turkish:
kocakarı masalı
— far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity
