Canterbury tale

noun

variants or Canterbury story

1

: a cock-and-bull story : yarn, fable

a Canterbury tale of a leg and an eye and heaven knows what

—George Colman †1794

2

: a long tedious tale

it grows into a long Canterbury tale of two hours

—Richard Steele

Word History

Etymology

from The Canterbury Tales, literary work by Geoffrey Chaucer †1400 English poet, consisting mostly of narrative poems which he puts into the mouths of persons on a pilgrimage to Canterbury

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