"cock-and-bull story" meaning in English

See cock-and-bull story in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-cock-and-bull story.ogg Forms: cock-and-bull stories [plural]
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. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown, {{noncog|fr|coq-à-l'âne|lit=cock to the ass|t=satire, incoherent story}} French coq-à-l’âne (“satire, incoherent story”, literally “cock to the ass”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} cock-and-bull story (plural cock-and-bull stories)
  1. (idiomatic) A far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity. Wikipedia link: Michael Quinion, Stony Stratford Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: Banbury story of a cock and a bull Related terms: shaggy dog story, tall tale, whopper Translations (far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity): conte d’indis [masculine] (Catalan), onzinverhaal [neuter] (Dutch), histoire à dormir debout [feminine] (French), conte de bonne femme [masculine] (French), Lügengeschichte [feminine] (German), Münchhausengeschichte [feminine] (German), (jemandem was) vom Pferd erzählen (english: to tell someone a cock-and-bull story) (German), dajkamese (Hungarian), scéal i mbarr bata [masculine] (Irish), røverhistorie [feminine, masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), skrøne [feminine, masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), bajka o żelaznym wilku [feminine] (Polish), história pra boi dormir (Portuguese), ਗਪੌੜ (gapauṛ) [masculine] (Punjabi), ска́зка про бе́лого бычка́ (skázka pro bélovo byčká) (english: a tale of a white (young) bull/calf) (Russian), chocoaventura [feminine] (Spanish), rövarhistoria [common-gender] (Swedish), kocakarı masalı (Turkish)

Inflected forms

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          "text": "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.",
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          "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
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      "tags": [
        "feminine"
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      "word": "Münchhausengeschichte"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "english": "to tell someone a cock-and-bull story",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "word": "(jemandem was) vom Pferd erzählen"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "word": "dajkamese"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "scéal i mbarr bata"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
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      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
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      "word": "røverhistorie"
    },
    {
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      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "skrøne"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "bajka o żelaznym wilku"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "word": "história pra boi dormir"
    },
    {
      "code": "pa",
      "lang": "Punjabi",
      "roman": "gapauṛ",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ਗਪੌੜ"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "english": "a tale of a white (young) bull/calf",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "skázka pro bélovo byčká",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "word": "ска́зка про бе́лого бычка́"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "chocoaventura"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "rövarhistoria"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity",
      "word": "kocakarı masalı"
    }
  ],
  "word": "cock-and-bull story"
}

Download raw JSONL data for cock-and-bull story meaning in English (7.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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