Terribly stale stories (5)
I believe the answer is:
tales
'stories' is the definition.
(I know this)
'terribly stale' is the wordplay.
'terribly' indicates an anagram.
'stale' is an anagram of 'TALES'.
(Other definitions for tales that I've seen before include "Relations" , "They might be tall" , "accounts" , "Lies" , "Stories, fables" .)