Reverse Dictionary: TALE

ADJECTIVES
► FAMIGEROUS carrying news, tales, etc. → 1730 obs.
► TALEFUL full of tales; making a long story; talkative → 1726 
► TALEWISE given to tales or talking; addicted to gossip; loquacious, garrulous, blabbing → 1200 obs.
► TALISH of the nature of a tale or story; fabulous → 1530 obs.
► YARNY disposed to the telling of long tales → 1905 Eng. dial. (Bk.)

NOUNS
► ACKAMARACKER ► ACKAMARAKA a fraudulent tale, a tall story, nonsense → 1930s sl.
► ACKAMARACKUS a fraudulent tale, a tall story, pretentious nonsense, bluff → 1933 Amer. sl.
► AULD WIFE’S SANTER an idle tale → 1904 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► BABBLERY idle talk, chattering, senseless babble or prating; a foolish tale → 1532 obs.
► BABBLES AND SAUNTERS gossiping tales and repetitions → 1868 Eng. dial.
► BAM a false or deceitful tale → 1856 Eng. dial.
► BOBBE-MAYSE ► BUBBE-MAYSE an old wives’ tale → 1970 Amer. dial.
► CANT gossip, tattle; merry tales; malicious talk → 1876 
► CANTILENE an old song; silly prattle; idle tale, trick → 1535 obs.
► CAUCH ► KAUTCH foolish tales, nonsense → 1867 
► CRAKE a talk; gossip, tale-telling, generally of an ill-natured kind → 19C Eng. dial.
► CUFFER a lie; a tale; an exaggerated and improbable story → 1891 Eng. dial.
► DAILY (MAIL) a tale, thus a lie → 1920s rhyming sl.
► DILDRAMS ► DILDRUMS strange tales, improbable stories → 1867 Eng. dial.
► FAIRY a fanciful tale, a ‘tall story’ → 1900s Aust. sl.
► FAIRY PIPE a fanciful, mendacious tale, often in aid of obtaining money or favours → L19 sl., orig. US
► FAIRY STORY a ‘hard luck’ tale; any unlikely tale; a downright lie or excuse → 20C colloq.
► FAIRY TAIL ► FAIRY TALE a fanciful, mendacious tale, often in aid of obtaining money or favours → 1671 colloq.
► FAIRY-TWISTER a fanciful tale, a ‘tall story’ → 1900s Aust. sl.
► FAIRY YARN a fanciful, mendacious tale, often in aid of obtaining money or favours → L19 sl., orig. US
► FAKELOO a spurious tale, a ‘fairy story’ → 1931 
► FANCY a legend, a fanciful tale; a whim, an idea; delirious talk; general in plural → 1836 Eng. dial.
► GAG an account; a begging tale → L19 UK tramps’ sl.
► GOLLY-WHOPPER a tall tale → 1941 Amer. cowboys’ usage
► GOOSE’S GAZETTE a lying story; a flim-flam tale; a piece of reading for a ‘goose’ (simpleton) → 1836
► ISRUM ► IZRAM a long, tedious tale → 1881 Eng. dial.
► JAPE a device to amuse; a merry or idle tale; a jest, a joke, a gibe → 1340 obs.
► LALAPALOOZA ► LOLLOPALOUSER an extremely tall tale; a lie → 1918 Amer. dial.
► LALDRUM ► LELDRUM noisy, foolish talk; nonsense; an improbable tale, falsehoods → 1902 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► LARUM a long, wearisome tale; a false report → 1855 
► MAUNDRELS idle tales; foolish, feverish fancies → 1791 Sc.
► NANCY-STORY a folk-tale or fairy-tale of type popular among the Black people of the Gold Coast and the West Indies → 1818 
► NANCY-TALE a folk-tale or fairy-tale of type popular among the Black people of the Gold Coast and the West Indies → 1891 
► NEWGATE GAOL a tale, esp. of the hard-luck variety → 1960 UK rhyming sl. (Bk.)
► NIFLE a trifling or fictitious tale, a jest → 1395 obs.
► PADDY-NODDY a long, tedious tale; a roundabout story; silly matter for gossip → 1865 Eng. dial.
► QUEEN ANNER an old-fashioned tale; a tale of former times → 1905 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► RANDIGAL a string of nonsense; a long, rambling tale → 1895 Eng. dial.
► REEMLE-RAMMLE a great noise; noisy, rollicking conduct; a noisy, rambling speech or tale → 1904 Sc. (Bk.)
► RETINUE a long, tedious tale → 1904 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► RUMIGERATION a spreading a rumour or report abroad; a carrying tales → 19C 
► SANTER an adventure; an idle tale → 1865 Eng. dial.
► SAUNTER an idle tale; an old wife’s tale → 1904 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► SAW a story, tale, recital → 1320 obs.
► SCRIFT a recitation; a long-winded story; a written composition; a made-up tale; a falsehood → 1766 Sc. obs.
► TALE OF A ROASTED HORSE, A an invented story, an idle tale, a fiction, a falsehood → 1570 
► TALE OF A TUB a fictitious tale, a cock-and-bull story → 1744 
► TALE OF WALTROT, A an idle tale, a piece of absurdity → 1377 obs.
► TALING telling of tales, talking, gossiping; also, a tale → 1382 
► TALLYDIDDLE a foolish or untrue tale → 1892 Eng. dial.
► TWISTER a grossly exaggerated tale; a lie → 1834 obs.
► UNCO a strange or unusual thing or tale; a novelty or piece of news; a wonder; a curiosity; generally plural → 1785 Sc. & N. Eng. dial.
► WHURLIEGIRKIE an untrue or fanciful tale → 1887 Sc.
► WINDY an extravagantly exaggerated or boastful story; a tall tale, a lie → 1911 Amer. dial.
► YARN a story, an adventure story, esp. a long, marvellous or incredible story; also, a mere tale → 1812 UK, orig. nautical
► YED a song, a poem, a speech, a tale, a riddle → 1205 obs.
► YED a falsehood; a fib, an exaggerated tale → 1825 Sc. obs.

NOUNS – PERSON (also see TALEBEARER)
► FABELLATOR an inventor of little tales; a fabulator; a story-teller → 1604 
► FABULAR a narrator or recorder of tales or fictions  → 1565 obs.
► FABULATOR one who fabulates or relates fables; a teller of tales or stories; a story-teller; a narrator → 1604 
► FAIRY the teller of fanciful tales → 1900s Aust. sl.
► FAIRY-TWISTER the teller of a fanciful tales → 1900s Aust. sl.
► GESTER ► GESTOUR a professional reciter or singer of romances or tales; a story-teller → 1380 obs.
► NACKUZ one who tells a tale pretty sharply → 1876 Sc. (Bk.)
► TALESMAN the teller of a tale; the author of a story; one who brings news or originates a statement; a relater, a narrator → 1568 obs. exc. Sc.
► TALES-MASTER the teller of a tale; the author of a story; the authority for a statement, one who brings news or originates a statement; a relater, a narrator → 1656 obs. exc. Eng. dial.
► TALE-WRIGHT a constructor or maker of tales → 1570 
► WHENEYE ► WHENNIE someone, esp. a visitor or foreigner, who exasperates listeners by continually recounting tales of his or her former exploits → 1982 sl.

PHRASES
► HIS SADDLE IS SLIPPING said of one telling a tall tale → 1945 US Western usage (Bk.)

VERBS
► AFFABULATE to attribute by legend; to assign fabulously; to tell tales → 1622 obs.
► CADGE to carry tales → 1876 Eng. dial.
► CANT tell tales, to backbite, to slander; to scold → 1776 
► CRAM to make believe false or exaggerated tales → 1794 sl.
► CUFF to tell a tale → 1746 
► FABLE to tell fictitious tales → 1380 obs.
► FABULATE to relate as a tale or myth; to talk or narrate in fables → 1616 obs.
► LABRISH to tell tales, to gossip → 1940s W. Indies
► MADAM to tell the tale; to ‘pitch a line’ → 1930s sl.
► PACK NEWS to gossip; to tattle; to tell tales → 1903 Amer. dial.
► PACK TALES to gossip, to tattle, to tell tales → 1950 Amer. dial.
► SACKER to seem innocent when up to roguery; to tell false tales of distress → 1904 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► SCONCE to tell tales that are untrue or exaggerated to obtain one’s ends → 1904 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► SHUCK to be deceptive or evasive; to tell tall tales or lies; to fool around, to tease → 1968 Amer. dial.
► SIDEBUST to gossip, to tell tales → 1990s African-American sl.
► SKAIL to spread a rumour, tale, etc. → 1375 obs.
► SNEAK to tell tales; to inform on; orig. of a child: to tell a teacher about the wrongdoings of another pupil  → 1897 Brit. sl.
► SPIN A YARN to tell a story, usually a long one; to pitch a tale; to tell lies → 1812 orig. nautical sl.
► SPRUCE to tell tall tales; to lie in order to evade a duty → 1917 Brit. sl., orig. services’ usage
► TALE to discourse, to talk, to chatter; to gossip; to tell tales → 1205 obs. exc. Eng. dial.
► TELL DILDRAMS to tell strange tales or improbably stories → 1900 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► THREEN ► THRENE to tell ghost stories or superstitious tales → 1898 Sc.
► TUTTLE to whisper; to carry tales → 19C Eng. dial.
► WAFF ABOUT to go about telling tales → 1905 Eng. dial. (Bk.)
► YARN to tell a story, to tell tales, probably implausible or far-fetched ones → 1812 UK sl.
► YED to tell a fib; to exaggerate a tale → 1825 Sc. obs.