Chinese whispers

Chinese whispers
a) A game for several players in which a phrase is whispered by each person in turn to their neighbour, the phrase often being unwittingly misunderstood as it is transferred, to humorous effect by the time it reaches the last person and is compared with the original phrase.
b) Anything resembling this particular game, for instance a verbal misunderstanding.
Syn: broken telephone, operator, pass it down, Russian scandal, telephone game, whisper down the lane

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  • chinese whispers — (UK)    When a story is told from person to person, especially if it is gossip or scandal, it inevitably gets distorted and exaggerated. This process is called Chinese whispers.   (Dorking School Dictionary) …   English Idioms & idiomatic expressions

  • Chinese whispers — noun (U) BrE the passing of information from one person to another, and then others, when the information gets slightly changed each time: Chinese whispers started about child abuse in Cleveland and developed into a national scandal …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

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  • Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour — (ISBN 0141035684) is a non fiction book by United Kingdom based Taiwanese author Hsiao Hung Pai, first published in 2008. It is about the lives of migrant workers from China in the UK, and received favourable reviews from major British newspapers …   Wikipedia

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