Etymology

Noun

1. A fictitious narration intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, birds etc as characters; an apologue. Prototypically, Aesop's Fables.
2. Any story told to excite wonder; common talk; the theme of talk.
   • 1 Timothy 4:7,

     Old wives' fables.

   • Alfred Tennyson,

     We grew The fable of the city where we dwelt.

3. Fiction; untruth; falsehood.
   • Joseph Addison,

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

Verb

1. To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction ; to write or utter what is not true.
   • Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, IV-ii:

     He Fables not.

   • Matthew Prior:

     Vain now the tales which fabling poets tell.

   • Matthew Arnold:

     He fables, yet speaks truth.

2. To feign; to invent; to devise, and speak of, as true or real; to tell of falsely.
   • John Milton:

   • The hell thou fablest.