Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having no foundation in fact or probability; incredible because not plausible: applied to idle and absurd rumors and stories. Also cock-and-a-bull.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Donovan cabled Deane in Moscow to tell Fitin one of the biggest cock-and-bull stories one spymaster has ever sent to another spymaster.

    Wild Bill Donovan Douglas Waller 2011

  • Humorous half-columns in the local papers, written in the customary silly way by unlicked cub reporters just out of grammar school, tickled the fancy of San Francisco for a fleeting moment in that the steamship Mariposa had rescued some sea-waifs possessed of a cock-and-bull story that not even the reporters believed.

    CHAPTER XVI 2010

  • No cock-and-bull stories for him, such as you romanticists luxuriate in.

    CHAPTER XXIX 2010

  • Donovan cabled Deane in Moscow to tell Fitin one of the biggest cock-and-bull stories one spymaster has ever sent to another spymaster.

    Wild Bill Donovan Douglas Waller 2011

  • 'I expect the men will have some cock-and-bull story tomorrow morning, about why they got hold of you, when they find you're not Richard,' went on Julian.

    An Open Letter to Fans of South Plains Football 2010

  • "And he's the one who conjured up this cock-and-bull story about deaths," continued the inspector.

    The Body Ricardo 2010

  • While I personally do not think evolution is guiding us in any coherent direction besides the cock-and-bull inchoate state of violence and ambition, De Chardin thought evolution had an intelligent goal (one that does more than favor the right of might).

    A Grander View of Evolution, Sans Voodoo 2010

  • And if you think it escaped me that you mentioned Shurland when you gave me this cock-and-bull tale of being your nearest male relative, you are mistaken.

    Gatlinburg 2010

  • While I personally do not think evolution is guiding us in any coherent direction besides the cock-and-bull inchoate state of violence and ambition, De Chardin thought evolution had an intelligent goal (one that does more than favor the right of might).

    David Vognar: A Grander View of Evolution, Sans Voodoo 2010

  • As Dettmer (with Boyd and Minnie hiding and listening) tells a cock-and-bull story about trying to rescue them, Boyd Duncan erupts from hiding and beats the daylights out of Dettmer with his bunches of knuckles.

    “Samuel! There was a rolling wonder in the sound. Ay, there was!” 2008

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