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Fable   /fˈeɪbəl/   Listen
noun
Fable  n.  
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." Note: A fable may have talking animals anthropomorphically cast as humans representing different character types, sometimes illustrating some moral principle; as, Aesop's Fables.
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."
3.
Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk. "Old wives' fables. " "We grew The fable of the city where we dwelt."
4.
Fiction; untruth; falsehood. "It would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away a great fortune by secret methods."



verb
Fable  v. t.  To feign; to invent; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely. "The hell thou fablest."



Fable  v. i.  (past & past part. fabled; pres. part. fabling)  To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction; to write or utter what is not true. "He Fables not." "Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell." "He fables, yet speaks truth."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Fable" Quotes from Famous Books



... author of a wretched panegyric which was handed to him, on condition that the writer should promise never to sing his praises again. When he justified before the burgesses the execution of Ofella, he did so by relating to the people the fable of the countryman and the lice. He delighted to choose his companions among actors, and was fond of sitting at wine not only with Quintus Roscius—the Roman Talma—but also with far inferior players; indeed he was himself not a bad singer, and even wrote farces for performance within his own ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... obscure workman among master builders. But she could offer her victory over herself, and ask her country to take back and use a character hewn and shaped in accordance with its traditions. Her husband's citizenship had become a legal fable. She would take it and weld it with her own, and, content never to know the outcome, lay them both together upon the altar ...
— Roads from Rome • Anne C. E. Allinson

... me from an acceptance;—but a belief that some other person, who had less pretence and less inclination to be excused, could execute all the duties full as satisfactorily as myself. To say more would be indiscreet; as a disclosure of a refusal before hand might incur the application of the fable, in which the fox is represented as undervaluing the grapes he could not reach. You will perceive, my dear sir, by what is here observed (and which you will be pleased to consider in the light of a confidential ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 4 (of 5) • John Marshall

... of hard, purposeful work, during which he supported himself by editing The Pennsylvania Freeman and by writing for the magazines. In 1848, his banner year, he published his best volume of Poems, Sir Launfal, A Fable for Critics and the first series of The Biglow Papers. It was not these volumes, however, but a series of brilliant lectures on the English poets that caused Lowell to be called to the chair in Harvard which Longfellow had resigned. He prepared for this work by studying abroad, and for ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long

... door, in your home; ready, I am sure, to satisfy all your requirements. Avail yourself of her willingness? No? Make use of this blessing which you possess? Again, no. You throw it aside to run after phantoms. Alas, all the men of your age are the same: like the dog in the fable, they let go their prey to seize the shadow. You are like the fool, who spends his life in vainly following fortune to the four quarters of the world, and who, when he returns to his hearth wearied, worn-out and aged, finds it sitting at his door. ...
— The Grip of Desire • Hector France


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