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Cock-and-bull story   /kɑk-ənd-bʊl stˈɔri/   Listen
Cock-and-bull story

noun
1.
An interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse.  Synonyms: fairy story, fairy tale, fairytale, song and dance.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Cock-and-bull story" Quotes from Famous Books



... that, so far as she was concerned, her loyalty to her absent lover was unbroken. As for the young gentleman himself, he was, Mr. Roscorla knew, fond of joking. He had doubtless thought it a fine thing to make a fool of two or three women by imposing on them this cock-and-bull story of finding a ring by dredging. He was a little angry that Wenna should have been deceived; but then, he reflected, these gypsy rings are so much like one another that the young man had probably got a pretty fair duplicate. ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88 • Various

... me, but that was no reason I should allow them to be murdered, if I could in any way warn them of the danger, while the guiltless passengers must be saved at all costs. I thought that if I told Captain Longfleet, he would treat my statement as a cock-and-bull story, and declare I had been dreaming. Probably I should be sent off with a kick and a cuff, and the crew would hear that I had informed against them. I thought, however, that I would tell the second mate, who was better disposed, and far more sensible than the rest of the officers. Then it ...
— Dick Cheveley - His Adventures and Misadventures • W. H. G. Kingston

... exclaimed the young man, impatiently. "What the foul fiend do you mean? I never heard such a cock-and-bull story in ...
— The Unseen Bridgegroom - or, Wedded For a Week • May Agnes Fleming

... doctor for a bottle; this ridiculous beating of my heart and disgusting cold perspiration have increased steadily during Count Alvise's narrative. To keep myself in countenance among the various idiotic commentaries on this cock-and-bull story of a vocal coxcomb and a vaporing great lady, I begin to unroll the engraving, and to examine stupidly the portrait of Zaffirino, once so renowned, now so forgotten. A ridiculous ass, this singer, under his triumphal arch, with his stuffed Cupids and the great fat winged ...
— Hauntings • Vernon Lee

... and had you followed. I saw his eye upon you during your last interview with William. It was clever to get through, nor can I discover how you managed it: for the account given by your pursuers is plainly absurd. I've been turning over their cock-and-bull story, which finds credence here, and cannot fit it with the probabilities. Yet they seem William's men. I find that the horse on which one of them returned is not the same as that upon which he rode away; nor does their narrative account for this. But the main point is that you are safe. By ...
— The Blue Pavilions • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch



Words linked to "Cock-and-bull story" :   fib, taradiddle, tarradiddle, fairy story, story, tale



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