cock-and-a-bull

"It seems, sir, to me that you have come to me with a cock-and-a-bull story, to establish an imaginary connection between me and some stupid adventure, which occurred at the Chateau des Anges."

The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 Various

He told you that cock-and-a-bull story to excite your imagination, and then, feeling sure that you would sooner or later try and escape by night, he kept guard in this rig.

The Firm of Girdlestone Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

Mingo was as ready as any other lover at a lie, and taking for granted that Jove would laugh at this, quite as generously as at a more dangerous perjury, he told a long cock-and-a-bull story about his having had it torn to such a degree in hunting cattle the evening before, as to put it beyond the power of recovery by the seamstress.

The Wigwam and the Cabin. By the Author of "The Yemassee," "Guy Rivers," &c. Second Series 1845

"Ah! by the by, you have some cock-and-a-bull story about him, I fancy, but you never could explain yourself, -- it is merely for the love of seeming wise that you invented it, eh, Goody?"

Eugene Aram — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

I have heard him tell a cock-and-a-bull story of having seen the ghost of his father's servant,

The Journal of Sir Walter Scott From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford Walter Scott 1801

Jem Coogan, Brian Murphy, Paddy Delany, and Andy O'Donnell, go back, and tell the wife and two childher a cock-and-a-bull story about Mat -- say that he is coming to Findramore for good and all, and that'll be thruth, you know; and that he ordhered yez to bring her and them afther him; and we can come back for the furniture to-morrow. "

The Hedge School; The Midnight Mass; The Donagh Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of William Carleton, Volume Three William Carleton 1831