tell it to the marines

English

WOTD – 2 November 2013, 2 November 2014

1918 song

Unknown, with many apocryphal suggestions.^[1]

(idiomatic, colloquial) I do not believe what you said.
- 1829, Douglas Jerrold, Act I, Scene ?:
  William. No palaver! tell it to the marines. What, tacking and double tacking! Come to what you want to say at once.
- 1868 February, Caroline M. Sawyer, “The Jester of Durano; Or, The Times of Old”, in The Ladies’ Repository, a Universalist Monthly Magazine for the Home Circle, volume XXXIX, Boston, Mass.: The Universalist Publishing House, page 128:
  I don’t believe the story you have been telling me, either, and think it far more likely that you are hiding from justice on account of some devil’s work you have been engaged in. Bah! Tell your story to the marines!

expression of disbelief

^ “Etymology of 'tell it to the marines'”, in Royal Museums Greenwich‎^[1], 2006 June 2 (last accessed), archived from the original on 4 September 2005