Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

shaggy dog story

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.17 in modern English

Syllables: shag-gy dog sto-ry
IPA

27

Scrabble Score

14

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

An intentionally long-winded joke or tale featuring the narration of typically irrelevant details, and usually ending with an absurd or pointless punchline which is often a pun or Spoonerism on a known catchphrase, with the intended humor deriving from the combination of the excessive length and the anticlimax.

Example Sentences

"The plot as Titus Oates described it to the Privy Council was something of a shaggy dog story, long on digressions and incidental details, but short on hard facts."

Etymology

Uncertain; probably from one of two jokes, one in which a protracted search for an alleged remarkably shaggy, talking dog ends in the discovery of the dog which, though it can indeed talk, is disappointingly not so shaggy after all; or one in which an even more protracted search for the shaggiest dog in the world ends in the utterly anticlimactic punchline “Now that’s a shaggy dog!”.

Inflected Forms

shaggy dog stories (plural) shaggy-dog story (alternative)

Phrases

shaggy God story Banbury story of a cock and a bull cock-and-bull story fish story tall tale

Frequently Paired Words

Banbury story of a cock and a bull cock-and-bull story fish story tall tale whopper

Synonyms

shaggy-dog tale shaggy dog tale

Questions

What does shaggy dog story mean?: An intentionally long-winded joke or tale featuring the narration of typically irrelevant details, and usually ending with an absurd or pointless punchline which is often a pun or Spoonerism on a known catchphrase, with the intended humor deriving from the combination of the excessive length and the anticlimax.
Where does shaggy dog story come from?: Uncertain; probably from one of two jokes, one in which a protracted search for an alleged remarkably shaggy, talking dog ends in the discovery of the dog which, though it can indeed talk, is disappointingly not so shaggy after all; or one in which an even more protracted search for the shaggiest dog in the world ends in the utterly anticlimactic punchline “Now that’s a shaggy dog!”.

How to pronounce shaggy dog story

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