tall tale
A tale or story which is fantastic and greatly exaggerated; also, an account of questionable veracity; a lie, an untruth.
He returned on Monday with a tall tale about a 100-pound fish he had caught.
tale
/ˈteːl/
noun 6verb 2
Collocations
30(noun.)
ADJ
long, rambling | amazing, bizarre, curious, extraordinary, fantastic, magical, marvellous, strange
awful, dire, sad, sorry, terrible
The awful tale of the old factory closure left the entire town feeling disappointed and uncertain.
dreary
He told us another dreary tale about his boring job at the factory.
chilling, gruesome, hair-raising, horror, macabre | mysterious, spooky | funny, humorous, witty | foolish | lurid, spicy, tawdry
fanciful, far-fetched, incredible, tall, unlikely
My uncle told us an incredible tale about catching a fish the size of a car.
old wives'
rags-to-riches
His grandmother loved telling her rags-to-riches tale about starting with nothing and building a successful business.
epic, heroic
The old fisherman told a heroic tale about surviving a terrible storm at sea.
cautionary, moral, morality | folk, traditional | childhood
fairy
Finding a twenty-dollar bill in his old jacket pocket felt like a fairy tale come true.
romantic
VERB + TALE
narrate, regale sb with, relate, tell (sb)
My grandfather loves to tell tales about his adventures as a sailor.
invent, make up, spin
TALE + VERB
begin | unfold | concern sb/sth, involve sb/sth
be set in
The ghost story takes place in an old Victorian mansion on a lonely hill.
be based on sth
PREP
~ about
The old woman told us a fascinating tale about her adventures traveling through South America.
~ of
My grandmother told us a fascinating tale of her journey across the ocean as a young woman.
PHRASES
a tale of woe
(have) a tale to tell
My grandmother has quite a tale to tell about her journey across the ocean as a young woman.
tell tales
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