fairy story

noun

1 a children's fairy story:

fairy tale, folk tale, folk story, traditional story, myth, legend, romance, fantasy, fable, fiction;

informal yarn.

2 informal they deserve honest treatment, not fairy stories:

lie, white lie, fib, half-truth, untruth, falsity, falsehood, story, tall story, fairy tale, tall tale, made-up story, trumped-up story, fake news, fabrication, alternative fact, invention, piece of fiction, falsification;

informal whopper, cock and bull story, angler's tale;

British, informal porky, porky pie, pork pie;

humorous terminological inexactitude.