yarn, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

yarn n.

[the stories told by sailors during the lengthy processes of making ropes; note Hall Caine, The Deemster (1897): ‘Without motive a story is not a novel, but only a yarn’: in other words, a yarn implies the dichotomy between ‘literary’ and ‘popular’ writing]

(orig. naut.)

1. a story, esp. a long and poss. implausibly wonderful one.

1821		J. Burrowes Life in St George’s Fields 13: You see what a tough yarn the Doctor was spinning.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 261: [note] Young pugilists may be seen listening to the ‘long yarn’ of Tom Owen, about the exploits and victories of the boxers of the Olden Times.
1838		D. Crockett in Meine Crockett Almanacks (1955) 146: Clear the coal-dust out of your wizzard, and give us a yarn about your tower.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 140: Some ladies, whom he was evidently entertaining with a ‘yarn’.
1847		J.S. Robb Streaks of Squatter Life 142: Tom squared himself for a yarn, wet his lips with a little corn juice, took a small strip of Missouri weed, and let out .
1853		Southern Literary Messenger Apr. 216: The old Judge suggested a trick, which was to get Burton to telling one of his Kentucky yarns.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 105/1: Before we had arranged for ‘graft,’ the old tar finished his yarn.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 132: I had already found how little reliance is placed on ‘prisoners’ yarns.’.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Jan. 2/1: In elegance of diction, boldness of grammar, profoundness of thought, and originality of punctuation, the yarn certainly surpasses anything we have seen since the late Bernardo Bladkins wrote ‘Rodolpho the Revengeful.’.
1889		H. Lawson ‘Story of Malachi’ in Roderick (1972) 11: He would indeed sometimes remark that our yarns were a caution, but that was all.
1891		Birmingham Dly Post 31 Mar. 3/4: [H]e unravelled such a ‘yarn’ that even the good man [...] deemed it rather ‘thick’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 98: Yarn, a long story; ‘spin a yarn,’ tell a tale.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 49: I have listened to his breezy bleat so often that I know his yarn by heart.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 168: It’s a kind of yarn in its way, if you’d like to hear it.
1925		‘Bartimeus’ Great Security 3: Where did you get that yarn from?
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 176: I didn’t take the least bit of interest in his yarns.
1946		S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 99: George Gee who tells the latest yarn with terrific zest.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 76: It’s the old yarn of mistaken identity.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 64: [T]he yarn proved popular and [Nat] Gould kept it going for 42 chapters.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 39: He [...] cooked up a yarn about stop-cocks.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘Strained Relations’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] If I hear another nautical yarn I’ll swing for him!
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 336: ‘I’ll have a good yarn for you’.
1999		Guardian Guide 12–18 June 18: Reissue of the seminal gangster yarn, with Caine as the avenging bruiser.
2000		Guardian Rev. 11 Feb. 5: This movie [...] is a rattling good yarn.

2. a chat, a conversation.

1857		H.W. Harper Letters from N.Z. (1914) 49: This has been a long yarn. I hope it has not tried your patience too much.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms (2006) 113: After tea, father and I and Jim had a long yarn.
1891		C. Roberts Adrift in America 124: I went over to the house and had a yarn with the depot agent.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 9 Dec. 3/4: Marster Robberd [...] ’ad a yarn with Mister McMillan an’ they sat down an’ torked a bit.
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 55: I only called in for a yarn.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 157: Come along to my tent for a while, and have a yarn.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 114: I just dropped in for a yarn.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 47: I just came in for a yarn with Happy.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 54: We had a good old yarn and Pat took one of my cigars.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 190: We’ll have a cup o’ tea and a bit of a yarn.
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 62: Go and have a yarn to them [...] You might get somewhere.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 17: Come up to the club tonight [...] and have a yarn to the boss.
1990		R. Barnard Death in a Cold Climate (1991) 31: He joined us [...] and we had a bit of a yarn.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] I’ll have a yarn with him.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] You might want to have a yarn with a Bruce Starkey.

In compounds

yarn-chopper (n.) (also yarn-pitcher, yarn-slinger, yarn-spinner)

a story-teller, a chatterer.

1885		B. Patterson Life in the Ranks 139: Others will call upon some of the yarn spinners to entertain them.
1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 4 Apr. 7/4: The ‘yarn pitcher’ at Tattersall’s was in great form on Wednesday, and kept the room in roars .
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues VII 3721: yarn-chopper (or slinger) = (1) a long prosy talker.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 12: Booze Artists [...] very amusing yarn-spinners and musicians and singers.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 55: Every Australian yarn is true — for the yarn-spinner who tells it.

In phrases

give out a yarn (v.)

to tell a story.

1939

‘Flann O’Brien’ At Swim-Two-Birds 88: He was giving out a yarn the length of my arm.

pitch a yarn (v.)

to recount a story.

1837–8		‘Tale Of A Shift’ in Cuckold’s Nest 34: He got my mistress in the barn, / And pitched her such a decent yarn, / That he soon got into the tail of marm.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 354: Can’t you pitch us a yarn, daddy? [...] Tell us something about the old country.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 153: You pitch that pretty yarn to a sittin’ magistrate.
1885		‘’Arry on ’onesty’ in Punch 31 Jan. 60/1: I love ’onesty all round my ’at, and no kid, / I could pitch you a yarn on that text.
1896		Regiment 5 Sept. 343/1: I was a country lad, and as green as grass—so it was not long before he began to pitch me yarns.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 527: I [...] pitched him a yarn about Prince Charlie and how my mother’s great-grandfather had played some kind of part in that show.
1940		‘Operator 1384’ McCann the Spy 170: [H]e had absolute power of life and death over us [...] Paris might make inquiries later, but he could pitch them any yarn without fear of contradiction.
1968		(con. 1940s) G. Dutton Andy 98: Those bloody reffos always pitch that yarn.

sling a yarn (v.) [sling v. (2a)]

to tell a story.

1876		B. Harte Gabriel Conroy II 302: Well, you jess stands up afore the jedge, and you slings ’em a yarn.
1889		H. Lawson ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 57: I’ll sling you a yarn worth more nor two / Such pumped-up yarns as that.