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shaggy dog story. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
shaggy dog story, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
shaggy dog story in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
shaggy dog story you have here. The definition of the word
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English
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!”.
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: shag‧gy dog sto‧ry
Noun
shaggy dog story (plural shaggy dog stories)
- 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.
- Synonyms: shaggy-dog tale, shaggy dog tale
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