Travellers' Tales
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
Tall yarns; exaggerated stories of wonderful adventures and sights. Telling such tales used to be called tipping one the traveller.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Travellers' Tales” mean?
Tall yarns; exaggerated stories of wonderful adventures and sights. Telling such tales used to be called tipping one the traveller.
Is “Travellers' Tales” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.