shaggy dog story
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shaggy dog story
Where it comes 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!”.
noun shaggy dog stories · shaggy-dog story
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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.
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.
Similar: shaggy-dog tale, shaggy dog tale
Talk about this word "shaggy dog story." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shaggy%20dog%20story. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. shaggy dog story. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shaggy%20dog%20story "shaggy dog story." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shaggy%20dog%20story.Cite this
@misc{shaggy_dog_story_2026,
title = {shaggy dog story},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shaggy%20dog%20story},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
