furphy
Syllables: fur·phyUK/ˈfɜːfi//ˈfɜɹfi/
furphy noun: an erroneous or improbable story; also, a rumour.
Noun
furphy (plural furphies)
- An erroneous or improbable story; also, a rumour.
- I know wot I wus born fer now, an' soljerin's me game, / That's no furphy; but I never guessed it once; […]1916, C[larence] J[ames] Dennis, “The Game”, in The Moods of Ginger Mick, Sydney, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson, →OCLC, page 110
- ‘Well, old boy, some other Top Persons have high-stepping wives who go to Nefertiti, and the furphy round the House is that they believe in the thing so solidly that they’ve convinced their husbands, and that’s what’s really at the back of it.’ / 'Now look, you two, sober up a minute. This is...1960 September, John Wyndham [pseudonym; John Wyndham Harris], chapter XII, in Trouble with Lichen, London: Michael Joseph, published October 1960, →OCLC, page 153
- Synonyms:
- scuttlebutt
Proper noun capitalized: Furphy
Australia/ˈfɜːfiː/
Furphy (plural Furphys)
- A surname.
furphy meaning in Tamil
furphy in Tamil
- அலர்
Synonyms of furphy
Forms of furphy
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | furphies |
| alternative form | furfie |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Furphys |
Origin of furphy
From Furphy (a surname), from the firm of J[ohn] Furphy and Sons. An often-repeated etymology is that during World War I (1914–1918), Australian soldiers in Europe and the Middle East often stood around water carts manufactured by the firm and emblazoned with its name to talk and exchange news and rumours. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the word derives from news and rumours spread by soldiers operating Furphy carts collecting garbage and human waste in the Broadmeadows Camp in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1914, or shared between soldiers visiting latrines where such Furphy carts would often be seen.
Words that rhyme with furphy
Questions about furphy
- What does furphy mean?
- Furphy means an erroneous or improbable story; also, a rumour.
- What is furphy in Tamil?
- Furphy in Tamil is அலர். See Furphy meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is furphy?
- Furphy can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce furphy?
- Furphy is pronounced /ˈfɜːfi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of furphy?
- The plural of furphy is furphies.
Words near furphy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: furphy (page history and authors); Furphy (page history and authors); furphy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-furphy.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-furphy.wav.
Cite this entry: “furphy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/furphy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.