the.com/fish story
A fact that gained weight every time it was retold.
means An exaggerated, barely-believable tale told as truth, especially one that inflates the teller's own exploits.
from Comes straight from anglers: every fisherman's catch grows a little in the retelling, and the one that got away gets bigger with every telling too. The phrase surfaces in American English in the 1800s as a label for any boastful, unreliable yarn — the fish long gone, but the story still swimming.
- origin
- anglers exaggerating catch size since forever
- growth rate
- inches added per retelling, data pending
- cousin term
- tall tale with a fishing license
- first recorded use
- american english, early 1800s