cock-and-bull story

Meaning: (idiomatic)Afar-fetchedandfancifulstoryortaleofhighlydubiousvalidity.Synonym:Banbury story of a cock and a bull1851November 14,Herman Melville, chapter XIII, inMoby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers; London:Richard Bentley,→OCLC: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’scock and bull storiesabout him had previously so much alarmed me concerning the very person whom I now companied with.1878,Robert Louis Stevenson, “Down the Oise: To Moy”, inAn Inland Voyage, London:C[harles]Kegan Paul & Co.,[…],→OCLC,page141:Finding us easy in our ways, he[…]told me acock-and-bull storywith the moral of another five francs for the narrator. The thing was palpably absurd; but I paid up, and at once dropped all friendliness of manner, and kept him in his place as an inferior with freezing British dignity. He saw in a moment that he had gone too far, and killed a willing horse; his face fell; I am sure he would have refunded if he could only have thought of a decent pretext.1912,Arthur Conan Doyle,The Lost World[…], London; New York, N.Y.:Hodder and Stoughton,→OCLC:"Challenger was the man who came with somecock-and-bull storyfrom South America." "What story?" "Oh, it was rank nonsense about some queer animals he had discovered."

Examples:

EN: He's here to check up on Challenger's cock-and-bull story.
ES: Está aquí para verificar si la historia de Challenger es un camelo."
EN: The idea of coming here with a cock-and-bull story like that!
ES: Venir aquí a contar ese camelo...
EN: What's this cock-and-bull story about the Baltic?
ES: ¿Qué es este cuento chino sobre el Báltico?
EN: All on account of that Bugs Meyers from the sheriff's office telling a cock-and-bull story about his capturing one of that Peabody kidnapping gang.
ES: Y todo por culpa de ese Myers y su cuento de haber atrapado a uno de los secuestradores de la niña Peabody.
EN: Comes here with a cock-and-bull story about an imaginary client.
ES: Para.
EN: A cock-and-bull story?
ES: - ¡Una broma! .
EN: What a cock-and-bull story.
ES: Que atajo de idiotas.
EN: You tossed off your last few bucks on account of a cock-and-bull story?
ES: ¿Y dio lo último que tenía por un cuento chino?
EN: - A cock-and-bull story?
ES: ¿Un cuento chino?
EN: Do not bother to give me a cock-and-bull story.
ES: No me venga con cuentos.
EN: After three years of complete silence... he suddenly comes back from the grave with this cock-and-bull story... and at the very moment when the will is to be read.
ES: Después de tres años de completo silencio... sale de la tumba con esta ridícula historia... en el preciso instante de leer el testamento.
EN: That's the greatest cock-and-bull story I ever heard.
ES: Es el mayor embuste que he escuchado en mi vida.
EN: I don't believe this cock-and-bull story that Venango surrendered.
ES: No me creo ese cuento de que Venango se rindió.
EN: Well, he had some cock-and-bull story about throwing the shoes though a window at a cat.
ES: Bueno, él contó un cuento chino diciendo que tiró los zapatos por la ventana para hacer callar a un gato.
EN: Was probably trying to think up some cock-and-bull story to tell Judge Cranston!
ES: - Probablemente trataba de inventar un embuste para embaucar al juez Cranston.

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