fabian

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: Fa=bi=an

CIDE DICTIONARY

fabian, a. [L. Fabianus, Fabius, belonging to Fabius.].

 Of, pertaining to, or in the manner of, the Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus; cautious; dilatory; avoiding a decisive contest.  [1913 Webster]

Fabian policy, a policy like that of Fabius Maximus, who, by carefully avoiding decisive contests, foiled Hannibal, harassing his army by marches, countermarches, and ambuscades; a policy of delays and cautions.

fabian, a. 

•  Of or pertaining to the Roman gens Fabia.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  Designating, or pertaining to, a society of socialists, organized in England in 1884 to spread socialistic principles gradually without violent agitation.

  "The Fabian Society proposes then to conquer by delay; to carry its programme, not by a hasty rush, but through the slower, but, as it thinks, surer methods of patient discussion, exposition, and political action."  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

fabian, n. 

 A member of, or sympathizer with, the Fabian Society.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fabian, n. & adj.
--n. a member or supporter of the Fabian Society, an organization of socialists aiming at a gradual rather than revolutionary achievement of socialism.
--adj.
1 relating to or characteristic of the Fabians.
2 employing a cautiously persistent and dilatory strategy to wear out an enemy (Fabian tactics).

Derivative

Fabianism n. Fabianist n.

Etymology

L Fabianus f. the name of Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator (= delayer), Roman general of the 3rd c. BC, noted for cautious strategies

THESAURUS

fabian

Fabian socialist, Fourierist, Fourieristic, Marxist, Owenite, Saint-Simonian, collectivist, collectivistic, corrective, emendatory, extremist, gradualistic, meliorist, melioristic, phalansterian, progressionist, progressist, progressive, progressivist, radical, reformational, reformative, reformatory, reformer, reformist, reformistic, revisional, revisionist, revisory, revolutionary, socialist, socialistic, state socialist, utopian, utopian socialist, utopist