yarn
n. countablen. a long story about exciting or funny events, which is often hard to believe. You use this when someone tells a tale that might be a bit exaggerated.
n. a long, involved story or narrative, especially one that is improbable or exaggerated. In its nautical sense, it refers to a tale told by sailors to pass the time.
He told us a long yarn about his adventures at sea.
The old sailor sat by the fire, spinning a yarn about a giant sea monster he claimed to have seen.
While the memoir was marketed as a factual account, many critics felt it was more of a tall yarn designed to entertain rather than inform.
From Middle English yarne, ȝern, yarn, from the Old English ġearn (“yarn, spun wool”), from Proto-West Germanic garn, from Proto-Germanic garną (“yarn”), from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰorn-, ǵʰerH- (“tharm, guts, intestines”). Cognates Akin to West Frisian jern, Dutch garen (“yarn”), German Garn (“yarn”), Danish garn, Swedish garn (“yarn, thread”), Icelandic garn (“yarn”), Latin hernia (“rupture”), Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ, “string”), Sanskrit हिर (hira, “band”). Compare also the obsolete doublet garn.
Often used with the verb 'to spin' ('to spin a yarn').