English▸ noun a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral:
the fable of the sick lion and the wary fox.
▪ a supernatural story incorporating elements of myth and legend:
he had conjured up a monster fit for any fable.
▪ [mass noun] myth and legend:
the unnatural monsters of fable.
▪ a false statement or belief:
believers accused the cosmologists of inventing fables on the birth of the universe.
▸ verb [no object] archaic tell fictitious tales:
I do not dream nor fable.
▪ [with object] invent (an incident, person, or story):
men soon fabled up their Histories into Miracle and Wonder.
– ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French fable (noun), from Latin fabula ‘story’, from fari ‘speak’.