shaggy

shaggy dog story

A long-winded anecdote that has a silly or anticlimactic ending. The old man was known for telling shaggy dog stories that made people groan and scratch their heads when he reached the ending.
See also: dog, shaggy, story
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

shaggy-dog Story

a kind of funny story that relies for its humor on its length and its sudden ridiculous ending. Don't let John tell a shaggy-dog story. It'll go on for hours. Mary didn't get the point of Fred's shaggy-dog story.
See also: story
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

shaggy-dog story

A long drawn-out anecdote with an absurd or anticlimactic ending. For example, At first he had us laughing wildly at his shaggy-dog stories, but after the third or fourth we found them tiresome . The term alludes to a well-known series of such stories, which involved a talking dog. [c. 1940]
See also: story
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

a shaggy-dog story

a long, rambling story or joke, especially one that is amusing only because it is absurdly inconsequential or pointless.
The expression, dating back to the 1940s, comes from the subject of one such anecdote, a dog with shaggy hair.
1993 New York Times Book Review The book has the unhurried pace of the best of the shaggy dog stories; the pleasure is all in the journey rather than the destination.
See also: story
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

a ˌshaggy-ˈdog story

(informal) a long, complicated story or joke, which has no proper ending and is not very funny: He told us this joke, which turned out to be a shaggy-dog story, and I hate those!This expression comes from the subject of one particular story of this kind, a dog with long, untidy (shaggy) hair.
See also: story
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • a shaggy-dog story
  • shaggy dog story
  • shaggy-dog story
  • dying day, to one's
  • groan with
  • groan with (something)
  • groan box
  • (as) silly as a wheel
  • (as) silly as a goose
  • silly as a goose
References in periodicals archive
Shaggy was riding high on his success in the music industry when reality kicked in.
Hot Shot: SHAGGY Stages Super Comeback
Set to seven Monteverdi madrigals pondering the exigencies of love, charmingly performed by the Artek Singers and 458 Strings, the seven dancers, in a variety of white, chic, and shaggy costumes by Isaac Mizrahi, declare their supposed aversion to love with arm-sweeping gestures; yet two lovers seem to plead for favor from a madonna figure, and dancers hold up two fingers to pledge love or leap with arms suggesting birds in flight -- light, sweet, cupidlike.
Mark Morris Dance Group, BAM Opera House, April 15, 17-20, 1997
Mammoths and mastodons, those shaggy relatives of modern elephants, thrived through the ice ages only to disappear abruptly at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, 10,000 years ago.
Sex and violence in the ice age world
Swiss designer Adriana Kaegi made her Home Textiles Show debut in April with a line of shaggy, sophisticated recycled silk decorative pillows, rugs and throws.
Dear Addy: funky home fashions
ONE Direction's Liam Payne has defended his hit inspired by Shaggy's It Wasn't Me - saying the Jamaican star borrowed from other tracks in the first place.
Liam aggy over Shaggy 'rip-off' 28 DAILY MIRROR SATURDAY 02.09.2017 DMUULS 8 DAILYMIRROR am 9.2017 WEEKEND with ASHLEIGH RAINBIRD
Matthew Lillard found fame as the slasher in Scream and the workshy Shaggy in Scooby-Doo.
Q & A
Boombastic singer Shaggy, Jamaican reggae artist Sean Paul and US rapper Jay-Z complete the top five.
We're having trouble understanding you! In Brief
And well-played to Steve Leonard, Kate Humble (do you reckon she misses working with Bill Oddie?) and co for an enjoyable romp through three weeks of fascinating facts, figures and shaggy (and non-shaggy) dog stories.
What do I tell Murphy?
Las Vegas, NV, March 01, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Kelly Petersen has opened Shaggy Chic Inc.
Las Vegas-based Shaggy Chic Inc. Opens for Business at Tivoli Village
A celebrity death hoax involving Shaggy is making its way around the Internet, but fans of the "Wasn't Me" singer can relax because Shaggy is not dead.
Shaggy Not Dead, 'Wasn't Me' Singer Another Victim Of Online Death Hoax
London, Nov 5 (ANI): Russell Brand says he's ready to cut his shaggy mane for the sake of his Hollywood career.
Russell Brand to cut off his 'scruffy' hair for career sake
Trying his hardest to find a moment as he hurriedly makes his way from a plane to a personal limo, a normally cool Shaggy breathes a sigh of relief as he confides he almost missed his transfer.
Mr lover lover is daddy cool
Scooby and his faithful pal Shaggy attempt to outwit nasty Dr Phibes with the help of Uncle Albert and a robot called Robby in four fun-filled episodes of the series
Staying in: OUT ON DVD
The cartoon may have been called Scooby Doo but the world's most famous Great Dane wouldn't have been anywhere near as popular without Shaggy.
What's new Scooby-Doo?
BRIAN ROBBINS'S modern day remake of the 1959 family favourite starring Fred MacMurray and Jean Hagen (reinvented in 1976 as The Shaggy D.A.) proves you can't teach new tricks to an old shaggy dog story.
Remake barks up the wrong tree