urban legend

urban legend

A local myth, legend, or piece of folklore that becomes widely spread through informal means, especially by word of mouth, usually describing, dealing with, or attempting to explain mysterious, macabre, horrific, or humorous events or happenings. A: "Did you ever hear about the kid whose stomach exploded from eating Pop Rocks and drinking soda at the same time?" B: "Oh, that's just a silly old urban legend." I remember hearing an urban legend about a young woman who hides in a chest in her attic for game of hide-and-seek on her wedding day. She gets locked inside and isn't found until many years later.
See also: legend, urban
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

urban legend

Fig. a myth or piece of folklore that is totally false. That story about the rats in the sewer being as big as dogs is an urban legend. It's just not so.
See also: legend, urban
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • urban
  • urban myth
  • urban tale
  • on the grapevine
  • on/through the grapevine
  • nummers
  • nummy
  • bundle
  • how-d'ye-do
  • flow
References in periodicals archive
In some cases, individuals create healthy narratives based in reality; in other cases, people incorporate urban legend and folklore in creation in their reconstructed narratives.
The Grateful Terrorist: folklore as psychological coping mechanism
The second item isn't true either, according to Snopes.com, a Web site devoted to debunking urban legends, misconceptions, old wives' tales, and celebrity gossip.
Modern myths unveiled
Notice, however, that in fact other totally unrealistic stories such as urban legends and horror stories do get passed around.
Analyzing rumors, gossip, and urban legends through their conversational properties
Early in the novel the central character, anthropologist Bertrand Milworth, in Africa to collect and compare urban legends, remarks that "'you've got to let go of the usual tendency people have for believing good stories.
He Sleeps. (Reviews)
URBAN legends have thrilled and spooked us for generations.
SCREEN SCENE: Review of the Week; Review of the Week:
Are the warnings about laser pointers causing eye damage true or just an urban legend? The concern is that retinal damage may result if one is aimed directly at a child's (or adult's) eye?
Lasers and Eyes
Also covered is the infamous, science-bashing "Missing Day in Time" urban legend actively circulating among fundamentalist Christians.
ON BELIEFS AND MISSING DAYS
With Bodega Dreams, Ernesto Quinonez skillfully switches from English to Spanish to create an urban legend where words vibrate on the page.
Bodega Dreams
(Frequency), Manhattan (American Psycho), New Jersey (The Hurricane), New Haven (The Skulls), generic university towns in New England (Urban Legend), the wooded foothills of the Rockies (Grizzly Falls), and inexplicably enough, an equatorial rain forest (Peter Benchley's Amazon).
Runway to the great white north
Altoids is a master of "urban legend" talk value for its brand.
Altoids' urban sightings
That's not actually an urban legend, it's the cornerstone of this agreeably dumb teen horror flick which wouldn't scare a kitten.
Hot Movies: The school for ghouls
The film is based on an urban legend set in a small village named Chanderi in Bhopal and music-composer duo Sachin-Jigar have scored the album.
Shraddha Kapoor has a knack for comedy
The urban legend tells the story of a couple who were out drinking then came home to realise that their dog was choking in the living room.
5 Creepy (And Others--Amazing) Urban Legends From Australia
It's an old urban legend used to explain why people get sick when they drink - and it just isn't true.
Drink without getting drunk; BUST THEMYTH
Reece said: "Within the urban scene a lot of artists are from URBAN LEGEND: performing in Hackney.
I discovered Tyriek when he was 8 and knew straight away that he was unique; Feature writer CATHERINE VONLEDEBUR shines a light on Coventry and Warwickshire's urban music scene