shaggy-dog story



shaggy-dog Story

a kind of funny story that relies for its humor on its length and its sudden ridiculous ending. Don't let John tell a shaggy-dog story. It'll go on for hours. Mary didn't get the point of Fred's shaggy-dog story.
See also: story

shaggy-dog story

A long drawn-out anecdote with an absurd or anticlimactic ending. For example, At first he had us laughing wildly at his shaggy-dog stories, but after the third or fourth we found them tiresome . The term alludes to a well-known series of such stories, which involved a talking dog. [c. 1940]
See also: story

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
ÉTiennette-French
Drakon-Ancient Greek
ÉTiennee-TYEN (French), e-TSYEN (Quebec French)French
Agamemnonag-ə-MEM-nahn (English)Greek Mythology
Sunan-Thai
Leui-Biblical Greek