Baloney: It's Just Not True

baloney. Baloney is an idea or statement that is nothing like the truth...in the same way that baloney sausage tastes nothing like the meat that is used to make it.

A similar word has almost the same meaning as baloney. It even sounds almost the same.  The word is blarney. It began in Ireland about sixteen hundred.

pulling the wool over someone's eyes.  It means to make someone believe something that is not true. The expression goes back to the days when men wore false hair, or wigs, similar to those worn by judges today in British courts.

wool is a popular joking word for hair.  If you pulled a man's wig over his eyes, he could not see what was happening. Today, when you pull the wool over someone's eyes, he cannot see the truth.