noun
or canterbury story
Usage: usually capitalized C
Etymology: from The Canterbury Tales, literary work by Geoffrey Chaucer died 1400 English poet, consisting mostly of narrative poems which he puts into the mouths of persons on a pilgrimage to Canterbury
1. : a cock-and-bull story : yarn , fable
a Canterbury tale of a leg and an eye and heaven knows what — George Colman †1794
2. : a long tedious tale
it grows into a long Canterbury tale of two hours — Richard Steele