Without article: Discourse, narration, speech; occasionally idle talk, fable. Obsolete.

A false or idle tale, told (a) to deceive, cheat, or befool, (b) to divert or amuse; a lying story, a fable, a fiction; a jest or joke; a foolish…

A mere story, as opposed to a narrative of fact; a fiction, an idle tale; a falsehood.

An idle tale or matter; an idea or statement of a worthless or unfounded nature. Obsolete.

a tale of waltrot, an idle tale, a piece of absurdity.

A foolish or ridiculous story; idle talk, nonsense; esp. in old wives' (women's) fables (archaic). Also †to take (something) for fable, to hold at…

Originally: †a trifling or fictitious tale, a jest (obsolete). In later use: a trifle; a thing of little or no value.

False, feigned, vain, or idle speech or action.

An unlikely story; a joke, a jest. Cf. trifle, n. 1.

An idle tale. Obsolete.

A tale of a kind read or told for entertainment during the winter; a fantastic, unrealistic, or unlikely story.

a story of a kind told for entertainment during the winter; spec. a fantastic or unrealistic tale; cf. winter's tale, n.

a made-up story, lie, ‘yarn’.

= galley-packet n.

A yarn or story.

Originally English regional. A story, tale, or yarn; an excuse. Now rare.

a yarn originating from talk around a scuttlebutt.

Science. An unfalsifiable and unprovable explanation for a phenomenon; esp. one purporting to show why a particular trait or behaviour has been…