fable definition | Dictionary.com

fa⋅ble

[fey-buh

noun, verb, -bled, -bling.

–noun

1.	a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue: the fable of the tortoise and the hare; Aesop's fables.

2.	a story not founded on fact: This biography is largely a self-laudatory fable.

3.	a story about supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents; legend: the fables of gods and heroes.

4.	legends or myths collectively: the heroes of Greek fable.

5.	an untruth; falsehood: This boast of a cure is a medical fable.

6.	the plot of an epic, a dramatic poem, or a play.

7.	idle talk: old wives' fables.

–verb (used without object)

8.	to tell or write fables.

9.	to speak falsely; lie: to fable about one's past.

–verb (used with object)

10.	to describe as if actually so; talk about as if true: She is fabled to be the natural daughter of a king.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME fable, fabel, fabul < AF, OF < L fābula a story, tale, equiv. to fā(rī) to speak + -bula suffix of instrument

Related forms:

fabler, noun

Synonyms:
1. See legend.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To fable

fa·ble (fā'bəl)

A usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often employing as characters animals that speak and act like humans.
A story about legendary persons and exploits.
A falsehood; a lie.

v.   fa·bled, fa·bling, fa·bles

v.   tr.
To recount as if true.
v.   intr. Archaic
To compose fables.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin fābula, from fārī, to speak; see bhā-² in Indo-European roots.]
fa'bler n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Fable

Fa"ble\ (f[=a]"b'l), n. [F., fr. L. fabula, fr. fari to speak, say. See Ban, and cf. Fabulous, Fame.]

1. 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.

Jotham's fable of the trees is the oldest extant. --Addison.

2. The plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem.

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. --Dryden.

3. Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk. "Old wives' fables. " --1 Tim. iv. 7.

We grew The fable of the city where we dwelt. --Tennyson.

4. Fiction; untruth; falsehood.

It would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away a great fortune by secret methods. --Addison.

Fable

Fa"ble\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fabled; p. pr. & vb. n. Fabling.] To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction; to write or utter what is not true. "He Fables not." --Shak.

Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell. --Prior.

He fables, yet speaks truth. --M. Arnold.

Fable

Fa"ble\, v. t. To feign; to invent; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely.

The hell thou fablest. --Milton.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : fable

Spanish: fábula,

German: die Fabel,

Japanese: 寓話

More Translations »

fable

c.1300, from O.Fr. fable, from L. fabula "story, play, fable," lit. "that which is told," from fari "speak, tell," from PIE base *bha- "speak" (see fame). Sense of "animal story" comes from Aesop. In modern folklore terms, defined as "a short, comic tale making a moral point about human nature, usually through animal characters behaving in human ways." Most trace to Greece or India.

Fable

applied in the New Testament to the traditions and speculations, "cunningly devised fables", of the Jews on religious questions (1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:4; Titus 1:14; 2 Pet. 1:16). In such passages the word means anything false and unreal. But the word is used as almost equivalent to parable. Thus we have (1) the fable of Jotham, in which the trees are spoken of as choosing a king (Judg. 9:8-15); and (2) that of the cedars of Lebanon and the thistle as Jehoash's answer to Amaziah (2 Kings 14:9).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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fable

narrative form, usually featuring animals that behave and speak as human beings, told in order to highlight human follies and weaknesses. A moral-or lesson for behaviour-is woven into the story and often explicitly formulated at the end. (See also beast fable.)

Learn more about fable with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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