fable

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: fa=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

fable, n. [F., fr. L. fabula, fr. fari to speak, say. See Ban, and cf. Fabulous, Fame.].

•  A Feigned story or tale, intended to instruct or amuse; a fictitious narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept; an apologue. See the Note under Apologue.  [1913 Webster]

  " A fable may have talking animals anthropomorphically cast as humans representing different character types, sometimes illustrating some moral principle; as, Aesop's Fables."  [PJC]

  "Jotham's fable of the trees is the oldest extant."  [1913 Webster]
•  The plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem.  [1913 Webster]

  "The moral is the first business of the poet; this being formed, he contrives such a design or fable as may be most suitable to the moral."  [1913 Webster]
•  Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk.  1 Tim. iv. 7.  [1913 Webster]

  "We grew
  The fable of the city where we dwelt."  [1913 Webster]
•  Fiction; untruth; falsehood.  [1913 Webster]

  "It would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away a great fortune by secret methods."  [1913 Webster]

fable, v. i. 

 To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction ; to write or utter what is not true.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
"Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell."  [1913 Webster]
"He fables, yet speaks truth."  [1913 Webster]

fable, v. t. 

 To feign; to invent; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely.  [1913 Webster]
"The hell thou fablest."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fable, n. & v.
--n.
1 a a story, esp. a supernatural one, not based on fact. b a tale, esp. with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
2 (collect.) myths and legendary tales (in fable).
3 a a false statement; a lie. b a thing only supposed to exist.
--v.
1 intr. tell fictitious tales.
2 tr. describe fictitiously.
3 tr. (as fabled adj.) celebrated in fable; famous, legendary.

Derivative

fabler n.

Etymology

ME f. OF fabler f. L fabulari f. fabula discourse f. fari speak

THESAURUS

fable

Marchen, Western, Western story, Westerner, action, adventure story, allegory, anagnorisis, angle, apologue, architectonics, architecture, argument, atmosphere, background, bedtime story, canard, catastrophe, characterization, color, complication, concoction, continuity, contrivance, denouement, design, detective story, development, device, episode, extravaganza, fabliau, fabrication, fairy tale, falling action, fantasy, fiction, figment, folk story, folktale, forgery, gest, ghost story, gimmick, horse opera, incident, invention, legend, line, local color, love story, mood, motif, movement, mystery, mystery story, myth, mythology, mythos, nursery tale, parable, peripeteia, plan, plot, recognition, rising action, romance, scheme, science fiction, secondary plot, shocker, slant, space fiction, space opera, story, structure, subject, subplot, suspense story, switch, thematic development, theme, thriller, tone, topic, twist, whodunit, work of fiction

ROGET THESAURUS

fable

Description

N description, account, statement, report, expose, specification, particulars, state of facts, summary of facts, brief, return, catalogue raisonne, guidebook, delineation, sketch, monograph, minute account, detailed particular account, circumstantial account, graphic account, narration, recital, rehearsal, relation, historiography, chronography, historic Muse, Clio, history, biography, autobiography, necrology, obituary, narrative, history, memoir, memorials, annals, saga, tradition, legend, story, tale, historiette, personal narrative, journal, life, adventures, fortunes, experiences, confessions, anecdote, ana, trait, work of fiction, novel, romance, Minerva press, fairy tale, nursery tale, fable, parable, apologue, dime novel, penny dreadful, shilling shocker relator, raconteur, historian, biographer, fabulist, novelist, descriptive, graphic, narrative, epic, suggestive, well-drawn, historic, traditional, traditionary, legendary, anecdotic, storied, described, furor scribendi.

Error

N error, fallacy, misconception, misapprehension, misstanding, misunderstanding, inexactness, laxity, misconstruction, miscomputation, non sequitur, mis-statement, mis-report, mumpsimus, mistake, miss, fault, blunder, quiproquo, cross purposes, oversight, misprint, erratum, corrigendum, slip, blot, flaw, loose thread, trip, stumble, botchery, slip of the tongue, slip of the lip, Freudian slip, slip of the pen, lapsus linguae, clerical error, bull, haplography, illusion, delusion, snare, false impression, false idea, bubble, self-decit, self-deception, mists of error, heresy, hallucination, false light, dream, fable, bias, misleading, erroneous, untrue, false, devoid of truth, fallacious, apocryphal, unreal, ungrounded, groundless, unsubstantial, heretical, unsound, illogical, inexact, unexact inaccurate, incorrect, indefinite, illusive, illusory, delusive, mock, ideal, spurious, deceitful, perverted, controvertible, unsustainable, unauthenticated, untrustworthy, exploded, refuted, discarded, in error, under an error, mistaken, tripping, out, out in one's reckoning, aberrant, beside the mark, wide of the mark, wide of the truth, way off, far off, astray, on a false scent, on the wrong scent, in the wrong box, outside the ballpark, at cross purposes, all in the wrong, all out, more or less, errare est humanum, mentis gratissimus error, on the dubious waves of error tost, to err is human, to forgive divine, you lie -- under a mistake.

Metaphor

N metaphor, figure of speech, facon de parler, way of speaking, colloquialism, phrase, figure, trope, metaphor, enallage, catachresis, metonymy, synecdoche, autonomasia, irony, figurativeness, image, imagery, metalepsis, type, anagoge, simile, personification, prosopopoeia, allegory, apologue, parable, fable, allusion, adumbration, application, exaggeration, hyperbole, association, association of ideas (analogy), metaphorical, figurative, catachrestical, typical, tralatitious, parabolic, allegorical, allusive, anagogical, ironical, colloquial, tropical, so to speak, so to say, so to express oneself, as it were, mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.

Untruth

N untruth, falsehood, lie, story, thing that is not, fib, bounce, crammer, taradiddle, whopper, jhuth, forgery, fabrication, invention, misstatement, misrepresentation, perversion, falsification, gloss, suggestio falsi, exaggeration, invention, fabrication, fiction, fable, nursery tale, romance, absurd story, untrue story, false story, trumped up story, trumped up statement, thing devised by the enemy, canard, shave, sell, hum, traveler's tale, Canterbury tale, cock and bull story, fairy tale, fake, claptrap, press agent's yarn, puff, puffery (exaggeration), myth, moonshine, bosh, all my eye and Betty Martin, mare's nest, farce, irony, half truth, white lie, pious fraud, mental reservation, pretense, pretext, false plea, subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe, sham, profession, empty words, Judas kiss, disguise, untrue, false, phony, trumped up, void of foundation, without- foundation, fictive, far from the truth, false as dicer's oaths, unfounded, ben trovato, invented, fabulous, fabricated, forged, fictitious, factitious, supposititious, surreptitious, elusory, illusory, ironical, soi-disant, se non e vero e ben trovato, where none is meant that meets the ear.