cock-and-bull
[In its origin app. referring to some story or fable. The early use of the phrase is parallel to that of the French coq-à-l'âne; cf. cockalane 2.]
1. lit.
| 1660 S. Fisher Rusticks Alarm Wks. (1679) 409 What a strange Story is here! as if a man should tell a Tale of two things, a Cock and a Bull, metamorpozed into one, whereof the one having been as confidently as untruly avowed to be assuredly known to be the other, viz. the Cock to be a Bull, is (being denyed) as ridiculously as reasonlessly profer'd to be proved in this illegal and illogical way of Argumentation, etc. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. 66 That cocks and bulls might discourse, and the hinds and panthers hold conferences about religion. |
2. to talk of, a story of, a cock and a bull: (to tell) a long rambling, idle story; tedious, disconnected, or misleading talk. Cf. F. coq-à-l'âne.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. iv. (1651) 274 Some mens whole delight is..to talk of a Cock and Bull over a pot. 1667 Sir R. Moray in Lauderd. Papers (1885) II. 83, I would not begin to talk of any matters & hee did not, so wee talkt about an hour of a cock and a bull. 1681 Trial S. Colledge 36 We call you to that particular of the papers, and you run out in a story of a Cock and a Bull, and I know not what. 1714 tr. T. à Kempis' Chr. Exerc. iv. xxix. 273 There being here neither beginning nor end..but they skip from a Cock to a Bull. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 430 To set their hearers agape with an idle story of a cock and a bull. 1800 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. I. 73, I have a letter from Stevenson who has..got accounts that Scindiah had joined the Kolapoor man..etc. etc., all about a cock and a bull. 1829 Southey Pilgr. Compost. Prel., Come! out with a murder,..a Goblin,..a Ghost, Or a tale of a Cock and a Bull! |
3. a cock and (a) bull story (tale, yarn): an idle, concocted, incredible story; a canard.
| 1795 Gazette of U.S. (Philad.) 2 Mar. (Th.), A long cock-and-a-bull story about the Columbianum [a proposed national college]. 1796 Burney Mem. Metastasio II. 77 Not to tire you with the repetition of all the cock and bull stories which I have formerly told you, etc. 1863 Kingsley Water-bab. vi. 243 They invented a cock-and-bull story, which I am sure I never told them. 1876 F. E. Trollope Charming Fellow I. xvi. 230 He told me a cock-and-a-bull story about his father's devotion to science. 1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage xcii. 483 You're a past mistress of the cock-and-bull story. 1952 F. Yerby Woman called Fancy xvi. 305 I'm going to invite them in—let them search the place. Give them a cock and bull story about sending the boy away with one of the servants. |