playground rumors

Noun

playground rumor (plural playground rumors)

1. An imaginative rumor, misconception, or urban legend spread among children, or regarded as similarly unconvincing.
   • However, the onslaught of information about H1N1 -- be it playground rumors, employer signs telling you to cover your cough, memos from your kids' school, or scary-sounding news reports -- is making it pretty hard to figure out what you should be doing right now.2009 October 13, Theresa Tamkins, “A H1N1 flu to-do (and don't do) list”, in CNN
   1. An unverifiable claim of hidden or unlockable content in a video game (especially associated with the late 1990s, before the Internet trivialized debunking such claims).
      • Something about the new handheld from Nintendo has captured my kid’s imagination. The thing is, I’m not exactly sure how they have found out so much about it. Their overblown expectations and exaggerated claims about the device seem to suggest the playground rumor mill to me.2011 February 4, Andy Robertson, “Playground Report on Pilotwings Resort 3DS”, in Wired, archived from the original on 03 Jul 2025