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Glite Dictionary
to tell it to the marines

to tell it to the marines

9.6
Say you do not believe someone's story
  • idiom
  • Archaic
translation icon : díselo a los marines
  • If you think anyone will believe that story, tell it to the marines.

Examples

  • When he gave yet another excuse for being late, she said, 'Tell it to the marines.'

  • Just tell it to the marines!

  • You expect me to believe that? Tell it to the marines!

  • I don't believe your excuse; just tell it to the marines!

  • "I don't believe a word you're saying; go tell it to the marines."

  • "After hearing his far-fetched excuse, she said, 'Go tell it to the marines.'"

  • "When he complained about his workload, his boss simply replied, 'Go tell it to the marines.'"

Synonyms

it didn't happen
vsto tell it to the marines
19 8.5

Saying this shows you do not believe someone's story and you want proof it is true

treats claims as unlikely or unimportant rather than directly denying them
bullcrap
vsto tell it to the marines
  • Offensive
9 9.7

Something not true that people say to fool others

rejects a claim as unimportant or unlikely using milder language
sure, story, bud
vsto tell it to the marines
  • Informal
9.9

Words said to show you do not believe someone's excuse or story

dismisses stories as unimportant or unlikely rather than asking for proof
to tell it to the judge
vsto tell it to the marines
  • Informal
8.7

Make an excuse that nobody believes and only a judge cares about

dismisses the complaint broadly without appealing to authority
to call it a crock
vsto tell it to the marines
  • Informal
9.5

To say that an idea is nonsense or not true

treats the idea as unimportant or unlikely rather than truthful
or it didn't happen
vsto tell it to the marines
  • Informal
9.3

Ask for proof when you doubt what someone says

dismisses stories as unimportant rather than asking for proof

Antonyms

to believe
∞ 1.0

Accept that something is true or trust a person

to take seriously
608 3.1

Think something is important and pay attention to it

Surface Forms

tell it to the marines infinitive
told it to the marines past
told it to the marines past participle
telling it to the marines present participle
tells it to the marines third person singular

Morphology

tell + it + to + the + Marines

The phrase's idiomatic sense of dismissing or expressing disbelief cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'tell' and 'Marines' (i.e., to say something to a military unit). Understanding that the Marines function as a sarcastic reference to gullible or uninterested listeners requires cultural/idiomatic knowledge, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

Tell it to the marines may come from life in the navy long ago. One popular story says sailors used this when someone told a wild tale, meaning 'go tell it to the marines' because marines were thought more likely to believe such stories, so today it is used to say 'I don't believe you'.