scare story

scare story

A story or rumor that makes something seem more serious, dreadful, or terrifying than it really is. Every year around Halloween, there's some scare story in the news about razor blades being found in candy. You just can't listen to all the scare stories people love to spread or you'd end up being afraid of everything!
See also: scare, story
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • a sting in the tail
  • sting in the tail
  • bedtime
  • bedtime story
  • have whiskers
  • cockamamie story
  • break a story
  • break the/a story
  • a tale never loses in the telling
  • tale never loses in the telling
References in periodicals archive
But Fox, a foreign minister under Major, insisted the claim was proof that "there's no scare story the Remain camp will not use".
Then there is the scare story of being an immigrant in Cyprus outside the EU.
He has published an absurd scare story about nanotechnology.
8, 2002, Miller hasn't heard a scare story about Iraq that she didn't believe - especially if it was leaked by her friends at the White House," recalls MacArthur.
The euro, once a software scare story on par with Y2K, is no longer a big issue for finance directors who are buying or upgrading their systems, according to a Financial Management survey of major suppliers at the Softworld accounting and finance show.
I did think this was just a scare story blown out of proportion until I started to talk to people who know about it.
A report in the magazine said: ``The antiperspirant scare is a classic example of a successful scare story: it appeals to a deepseated fear, its vaguely scientific language makes it sound as if it could be true, and it offers no source that can be checked.''
A report in the magazine said: "The anti-perspirant scare is a classic example of a successful scare story: it appeals to a deep-seated fear, its vaguely scientific language makes it sound as if it could be true, and it offers no source that can be checked."
By chemo-phobia I mean the predisposition to believe any scare story about hazards to health or the environment caused by the chemical industry or its products.
Jinja LET'S hope this is just a scare story, like so many others when it comes to Brexit.
THE scare story that first emerged in 1998 about the MMR vaccine had no basis in fact or science.
But that Tory Europe minister David Lidington should rake up the old scare story that Scotland would find itself on the wrong side of a European Union agreement on the freedom of movement is ridiculous.
I agree that it would be bad news if the grant were withdrawn totally but it is still a scare story. There are also questions to be asked about its use - all bus operators get the same whether they provide a good service or not.
Mr Haggie says that "potentially, global warming is the most catastrophic scare story in history".
I WAS hoping Monday's ECHO headline which read 'We've Caught A Shark In The Mersey' was actually a well orchestrated scare story placed by someone in the office.