Definition of furphy in English:
furphy
nounPlural furphies ˈfəːfi
Australian informal A rumour or story, especially one that is untrue or absurd.
I remembered the schoolyard furphies about sewer gangs
Example sentencesExamples
- Simon Moglia from Victoria Legal Aid says it's a furphy to suggest the powers are not over-reaching.
- The 10% figure often cited, which comes from the Kinsey Report has long been dismissed as a furphy.
- Museum Manager-Curator, Capt Linda Graham, believes the story is a furphy.
- The idea that the enforcement of criminal law is an aspect of foreign policy is odious, and in any country with an independent judicial system, is a furphy.
- Property booms in the UK and NZ also prove that it is a furphy to claim that tax fuelled Australia's boom.
- No, and really, it is a bit of a furphy to suggest that it does.
- There would have been absolutely nothing new in the weak disclosures in company annual reports that started in Australia in the later 1990s, so that's a complete furphy.
- Please, all this talk about ‘getting in on the ground floor’ of new regional security arrangements is nothing but a furphy.
- There's a furphy about losing manufacturing jobs offshore.
- I'm continually told by people I meet about the brilliant presentation they heard which said that this is all a furphy and it's just scaremongering.
Synonyms
rumour, story, report, speculation, insinuation, suggestion, hint
Origin
First World War: from the name painted on water and sanitary carts manufactured by the Furphy family of Shepparton, Victoria; during the war they became popular as a place where soldiers exchanged gossip, often when visiting the latrines.
Rhymes
murphy, scurfy, surfy, turfy