Search the Dictionary

A water nymph; one of the lower female divinities, fabled to preside over some body of fresh water, as a lake, river, brook, or fountain.

A beautiful youth fabled to have been enamored of his own image as seen in a fountain, and to have been changed into the flower called Narcissus.

cwritten also oldwife.] (a) A prating old woman; a gossip. Refuse profane and old wives' fables. 1 Tim. iv. 7.

Of or pertaining to Olympus, a mountain of Thessaly, fabled as the seat of the gods, or to Olympia, a small plain in Elis. Olympic games, or Olympics (Greek Antiq.), the greatest of the national festivals of the ancient Greeks, consisting of athletic games and races, dedicated to Olympian Zeus, celebrated once in four…

Of or pertaining to pagans or paganism; heathenish; paganish. [R.] "The paganic fables of the goods." Cudworth. -- Pa*gan"ic*al*ly, adv. [R.]

An illustration, as by a parable or fable.

A winged horse fabled to have sprung from the body of Medusa when she was slain. He is noted for causing, with a blow of his hoof, Hippocrene, the inspiring fountain of the Muses, to spring from Mount Helicon. On this account he is, in modern times, associated with the Muses, and with ideas of poetic inspiration. Each…

Character assumed or represented. "The actors and personages of this fable." Broome. "Disguised in a false personage." Addison.

To celebrate loudly; to extol; to praise. [Obs.] In fable, hymn, or song so personating Their gods ridiculous. Milton.

The son of Helios (Phoebus), that is, the son of light, or of the sun. He is fabled to have obtained permission to drive the chariot of the sun, in doing which his want of skill would have set the world on fire, had he not been struck with a thunderbolt by Jupiter, and hurled headlong into the river Po.…

A bird fabled to exist single, to be consumed by fire by its own act, and to rise again from its ashes. Hence, an emblem of immortality.

.), one of the ancient Greek modes, very bold and vehement in style; -- so called because fabled to have been invented by the Phrygian Marsyas. Moore (Encyc. of Music). -- Phrygian stone, a light, spongy stone, resembling a pumice, -- used by the ancients in dyeing, and said to be drying and astringent.…

The seven daughters of Atlas and the nymph Pleione, fabled to have been made by Jupiter a constellation in the sky.

The son of Iapetus (one of the Titans) and Clymene, fabled by the poets to have surpassed all mankind in knowledge, and to have formed men of clay to whom he gave life by means of fire stolen from heaven. Jupiter, being angry at this, sent Mercury to bind Prometheus to Mount Caucasus, where a vulture preyed upon his li…

A fox; -- so called in fables or familiar tales, and in poetry. [Written also reynard.]

Of or pertaining to romance or fable; fanciful. Romanesque style (Arch.), that which grew up from the attempts of barbarous people to copy Roman architecture and apply it to their own purposes. This term is loosely applied to all the styles of Western Europe, from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the appearance…

Surely; securely. [Obs.] But sikerly, withouten any fable. Chaucer.

Not pronounced; having no sound; quiescent; as, e is silent in "fable."

kissing or after tasting. Drinking off the cup, and smacking his lips with an air of ineffable relish. Sir W. Scott.

growing in the coniferous forests of California. It is all of a bright red color, and is fabled to grow from the snow, through which it sometimes shoots up.