Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An insignificant or childish lie.
- v. To tell a fib. See Synonyms at lie2.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A lie; specifically, a white lie; a venial falsehood, told to save one's self or another from embarrassment.
- To say what is not true; lie, especially in a mild or comparatively innocent way.
- To tell a fib to; lie to.
- To beat of strike, especially by delivering a succession of short rapid blows.
- To deliver a succession of short rapid blows.
Wiktionary
- n. informal A lie, especially one that is more or less inconsequential.
- v. intransitive To lie, especially more or less inconsequentially.
- n. medicine, informal Short form of fibula.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A falsehood; a lie; -- used euphemistically.
- v. colloq. To speak falsely.
- v. rare To tell a fib to.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a trivial lie
- v. tell a relatively insignificant lie
Etymologies
- Shortened from fibula (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps from obsolete and dialectal fible-fable, nonsense, reduplication of fable. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“* And: Ben Adler points out that O'Donnell's Oxford fib is especially ironic and amusing, because "conservatives and Republicans are famously suspicious of educational credentials and disdainful of cultural (as opposed to economic) elites.”
“I thought of all the evil deeds of my short life – of pinching Felix to make him cry out at family prayers, of playing truant from Sunday School and going fishing one day, of a certain fib – no, no away from this awful hour with all such euphonious evasions – of a lie I had once told, of many a selfish and unkind word and thought and action.”
“Euros attained 1.3008 on Friday just blipping above the 61.8 med term fib level.”
“They will re-instate longs then on a break above 10750, which clears the long term fib of 10744.”
“So sell into strength to these higher levels, this time leaving stops above the 75% short term fib of 1.5040.”
“Cable faltered on the topside and came lower then for the med term fib level of 1.5069 reaching 1.5066.”
“Would expect rallies from this point at least back to yesterdays highs of 4624 which is again one of your short term fib levels.”
“Oil is currently trading above its 25\% short term fib level of 4834. making a base on the short term charts.”
“Currently you are seeing corrective pressure from the sellers kick in with the first short term fib level of 1.3358 virtually attained.”
“However if this region is lost look for the market to come lower with 4854 / 50 your first short term fib level.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fib’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 159 more...
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3-Letter Scrabble Words Which Do Not ...
A list of 3-letter words which cannot be formed by adding a letter to a 2-letter word (see Ken Clark's word lists found at http://www.seattlescrab...
fiz, fix, fir, fig, fie, fib, eve, eke, egg, eek, ecu, ebb and 225 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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Pants on fire
Synonyms and euphemisms for lie, liar, or lying.
disingenuous, equivocator, fabricator, fibber, maligner, prevaricator, hypocrite, mendacity, mendacious, fabulist, pantelones encend..., pinocchio and 16 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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-ib
zib, glib, fib, squib, lib, nib, bib, dib, mib, gib, jib, Carib and 27 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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rfb's Words
verschlimmbessern, schnabulieren, absahnen, gebauchpinselt, frostbeule, formulediarree, flabbergasted, beeumeln, schmusekater, hausse, dose, knorke and 197 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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My Revised GRE Preparation List
Words from the new GRE : This list consists mostly of words from the book Magoosh-GRE-vocab-ebook, which is one of the best vocab materials available, especially if you have started preparing one ...
alacrity, prosaic, veracity, paucity, contrite, trite, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious, innocuous and 533 more...
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Loaded Dice
Off the straight and narrow; less than straight arrow.
chicanery, sophistry, pilfer, rook, diddle, fleece, grift, poach, rustle, pinch, abscond, steal and 140 more...
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Not Quite The Real Thang
masquerade, sham, counterfeit, shyster, phoney, bogus, pseudo, artificial, fabricated, mock, concocted, false and 158 more...
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sarahatlee's Words
pants, nekkid, schadenfreude, unseasonably, illicit, glaswegian, cripes, futz, drawers, scupper, coulrophobic, redacted and 254 more...
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Gaurav gre
gorgeous, repine, remonstrate, gaffian, ennobled, stultifying, precarious, spurious, hobbled, remiss, limpid, Tendentious and 73 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fib.
wxv6 The etymology of the word fib could be a slang abbreviation of the word amphiboly, pronounced (am - fib - o - lee). Amphiboly arises from the ancient Greek word amphibolia so it is certainly an origin older than the etymolgies given on Wordnik now. Jan 4, 2010
inkhorn A &%*$@ Illinois bastard. Wisconsin retort to cheesehead. Dec 19, 2006