tall story
1
7.3
- noun
- /tɔl ˈstɔri/
- Informal
:
historia exagerada
- Ah, you tell great, big, tall stories, don't ya, eh?
- tell tall stories
Examples
-
She would read about Annie and bears and boys who told tall stories to get out of trouble.
Fiction book (1997) -
It's a tall story about a very small person.
Fiction book (2000) -
- Well, you must admit it's a pretty tall story.
-
Are you still telling tall stories of dragons father?
-
Several... tall stories I think you'd like to hear.
-
- Come on, Huntley, you must've heard a few tall stories when someone's trying to cover up a murder even in your short time in the job.
-
He loves to entertain us with his tall story about wrestling a bear during his childhood.
-
Whenever we go camping, he tells a tall story about the ghost that haunts the woods.
-
The author is famous for his tall stories that often blend humor with highly improbable events.
Synonyms
20
7.2
A long story that is probably not true
19
4.0
A story that says things are bigger or more amazing than they really are to be funny
15
3.4
A made-up story told to hide the truth or deceive people
10
4.6
A made-up story used to avoid blame or trick people
7
4.6
A very exciting tale that is often not true
1
6.3
An absurd lie used to avoid blame or trick someone
1
5.5
A made up story told to hide the truth
A made-up or exaggerated story that is unlikely to be true
A made-up story told in a big, exciting way to amuse people
A false story people tell to hide the real reason
A silly story that is clearly false and hard to believe
Antonyms
How Exaggerated
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'story' is literal but 'tall' here requires a metaphorical extension from physical height to improbability/exaggeration (as in 'tall tale'), which is not directly predictable from the basic meanings. A B1 learner who knows 'tall' and 'story' may guess something unusual but would likely not reliably infer the precise sense 'exaggerated or unlikely' without prior exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom tall story comes from old storytellers who kept making their tales bigger and more dramatic, so the events in the tale seemed to grow 'taller' than real life. One popular idea is that tall was used to mean 'big or unlikely', so a tall story came to mean a story that is exaggerated or hard to believe.