throwing the bull

Verb

throw the bull (third-person singular simple present throws the bull, present participle throwing the bull, simple past threw the bull, past participle thrown the bull)

1. (dated, idiomatic, intransitive) To chat idly.
   • "Hello, Steve. Don't let me interrupt your business conference." ¶ "You're not. We were just throwing the bull. The boys are worrying about what will happen to the book business when we get in the war. Paper restrictions and the usual trade dung."1948, Pierre Sichel, Such as We, New York, N.Y.: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 339

   Synonyms:

   shoot the bull

2. (dated, idiomatic, intransitive) To make false boastful claims.
   • "I'm glad you look at it that way. I don't want you to think I'm just throwing the bull."1923, Roger L. Sergel, Arlie Gelston, New York, N.Y.: B. W. Huebsch, Inc., page 272
3. (dated, idiomatic, intransitive) To talk or write in an obscure and pretentious manner.
   • I was about to write a simple theme about this dumb question when I remembered that my literary friends were always "throwing the bull"—building up their sentences to sound complex and sophisticated.1988, Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character, New York, N.Y.; London: W. W. Norton & Company, →OCLC, page 31
4. (dated, idiomatic, intransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see throw, the, bull.