Wiktionary
n. (context idiomatic English) A greatly exaggerated, fantastic story.
WordNet
n. an improbable (unusual or incredible or fanciful) story
Wikipedia
A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some stories such as these are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories ("the fish that got away") such as, "That fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely fictional tales set in a familiar setting, such as the European countryside, the American frontier, the Canadian Northwest, or the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Tall tales are often told in a way that makes the narrator seem to have been a part of the story, and are good-natured. The line between legends and tall tales is distinguished primarily by age; many legends exaggerate the exploits of their heroes, but in tall tales the exaggeration looms large, to the extent of becoming the whole of the story.
Tall Tale, also known as Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill is a 1995 American western adventure fantasy film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It stars Scott Glenn, Oliver Platt, Nick Stahl, Stephen Lang, Roger Aaron Brown, Jared Harris, with Catherine O'Hara as Calamity Jane and Patrick Swayze as Pecos Bill.
The film was written by Steven L. Bloom and Robert Rodat and was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Caravan Pictures.
Usage examples of "tall tale".
One couldn't readily separate truth from tall tale, but Gawaine didn't mind that: As a bardling, he knew quite a few tall tales of his ownmost of his being set to a tune, of courseand he liked a good one.
She sat on a stool behind the counter, all her attention on an old man who sat in a rocking chair, his aged voice gleeful as he continued to recount some tall tale from his long-ago youth.
In contrast, your Danik forebears rushed to embrace a tall tale they were told by a band of smooth talkers.