Fabian

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Of or relating to the caution and avoidance of direct confrontation typical of the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus.
• adjective Cautious or dilatory, as in taking action.
• adjective Of, relating to, or being a member of the Fabian Society, which was committed to gradual rather than revolutionary means for spreading socialist principles.

from The Century Dictionary.

• Designating a variety or school of socialism more flexible and opportunist than the socialism of Marx and the International, and laying emphasis on municipal experiments in public ownership. See Fabian Society.
• noun A member of the Fabian Society.
• Delaying; dilatory; avoiding battle, in the manner of Quintus Fabius Maximus, a Roman general, who in conducting military operations against Hannibal declined to risk a battle in the open field, but harassed the enemy by marches, countermarches, and ambuscades.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective Of or pertaining to the Roman gens Fabia.
• adjective Designating, or pertaining to, a society of socialists, organized in England in 1884 to spread socialistic principles gradually without violent agitation.
• noun A member of, or sympathizer with, the Fabian Society.
• adjective Of, pertaining to, or in the manner of, the Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus; cautious; dilatory; avoiding a decisive contest.
• adjective a policy like that of Fabius Maximus, who, by carefully avoiding decisive contests, foiled Hannibal, harassing his army by marches, countermarches, and ambuscades; a policy of delays and cautions.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective Pertaining to or reminiscent of Roman general Fabius Maximus, whose tactics against Hannibal during the Second Punic War famously consisted of delaying or avoiding combat, focusing instead on weakening the enemy by cutting off supply lines.
• adjective Advocating that social reforms be reached through a series of gradual and moderate stages rather than sudden revolution; specifically, relating to the Fabian Society, a British socialist society advocating reformist socialism.
• adjective by extension cautious; dilatory; avoiding a decisive contest.
• noun A Fabian socialist, a gradualist socialist; a member of the Fabian Society.
• proper noun A male given name borne by an early pope. Rare in English.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adjective using cautious slow strategy to wear down opposition; avoiding direct confrontation
• noun a member of the Fabian Society in Britain
• adjective of or relating to Fabianism