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Cock-and-bull story
Definitions
- 1 A far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity. idiomatic
"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."
- 2 an interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse wordnet
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.
See also for "cock-and-bull story"
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