old wives' tale

American  

noun

1. a traditional belief, story, or idea that is often of a superstitious nature.

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old wives' tale British  

noun

1. a belief, usually superstitious or erroneous, passed on by word of mouth as a piece of traditional wisdom

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old wives' tale Idioms  

1. A superstition, as in Toads cause warts? That's an old wives' tale. This expression was already known in ancient Greece, and a version in English was recorded in 1387. Despite invoking bigoted stereotypes of women and old people, it survives.

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Etymology

Origin of old wives' tale

First recorded in 1670–80

Example Sentences

Its government said that there were "no border violations by Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters", and described the accusation as an "old wives' tale".

From BBC

No one's spitting in your dish; that's an old wives' tale.

From Salon

Then I read a trick that sounded like it had to be an old wives' tale: Stick a piece of bread in your mouth.

From Salon

It is where we get the notion of the old wives' tale.

From Salon

Another popular old wives' tale is that a full Moon causes women to go into labour.

From BBC