fib

See also: FIB

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɪb/

  • Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ɪb

Etymology 1

Probably from fable; compare fibble-fable (“nonsense”).

Noun

fib (plural fibs)

1. (informal) A lie, especially one that is more or less inconsequential.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:lie

   • 1773, [Oliver] Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer: Or, The Mistakes of a Night. A Comedy. […], London: […] F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, Act III, page 51:

     Aſk me no queſtions, and I'll tell you no fibs.

   • 1878, Henry James, chapter 6, in The Europeans‎^[1], Macmillan and Co.:

     Wouldn’t that serve as an excuse, in Boston? I am told they are very sincere; they don't tell fibs.

2. (informal, rare) A liar.
   • 1861, Henry Kingsley, Ravenshoe:

     "Oh! you dreadful fib," said Flora.

Translations

a more or less inconsequential lie

• Bulgarian: измислица (bg) f (izmislica), несъзнателна лъжа f (nesǎznatelna lǎža)
• Czech: (malá, nevinná) lež (cs) f
• Danish: løgn (da) c, nødløgn c, hvid løgn c, usandhed (da) c
• Dutch: leugentje (nl) n, gejok n
• Faroese: pell n, ósannindi n pl
• Finnish: vale (fi)
• French: baratin (fr) m, bobard (fr) m, craque (fr) f
• Galician: drola f, broza f, caroca (gl) f, mintira f, bouba (gl) f
• German: Flunkerei f, Schwindelei f, Fabulation f, Fantasiegeschichte f
• Hungarian: füllentés (hu), lódítás
• Ido: mentieto
• Italian: menzogna (it) f, bugia (it) f, baggianata (it) f, bufala (it) f, fola (it) f, frottola (it) f, fandonia (it) f
• Japanese: 方便 (ja) (ほうべん, hōben)
• Mongolian: худал (mn) (xudal)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hvit løgn (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: kvit løgn f, kvit lygn f

• Portuguese: mentirinha f, peta (pt) f
• Russian: вы́думка (ru) f (výdumka), до́мысел (ru) m (dómysel), непра́вда (ru) f (neprávda)
• Serbo-Croatian: sitna laž f
• Spanish: milonga (es), patraña (es), trola, mentirijilla (es) (colloquial, Spain)

Verb

fib (third-person singular simple present fibs, present participle fibbing, simple past and past participle fibbed)

1. (informal, intransitive) To lie, especially more or less inconsequentially.

Translations

to tell a more or less inconsequential lie

• Bulgarian: послъгвам (bg) (poslǎgvam)
• Czech: lhát (cs) impf, vymýšlet si impf, kecat (cs) impf
• Dutch: jokken (nl)
• Estonian: luiskama (et)
• French: bobarder (fr), raconter des bobards
• German: flunkern (de), schwindeln (de), fabulieren (de)
• Hungarian: füllent (hu), lódít (hu)
• Ido: mentietar
• Italian: mentire (it)
• Russian: привирать (ru) impf (priviratʹ), приврать (ru) pf (privratʹ)

Derived terms

• fibber
• fibbery
• fibster

See also

• pilfer

References

• “fib”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. (etymology)
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “fib”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Etymology 2

Shortened from fibula.

Noun

fib (plural fibs)

1. (medicine, informal) The fibula.

See also

• tib

Etymology 3

Verb

fib (third-person singular simple present fibs, present participle fibbing, simple past and past participle fibbed)

1. (archaic, thieves' cant, boxing) To punch, especially a series of punches in rapid succession; to beat; to hit; to strike.
   • 1785, Grose, Francis, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue‎^[2], 2nd edition, published 1788, To Fib:

     Fib the cove's quarron in the rumpad for the lour in his bung; beat the fellow in the highway for the money in his purse.

   • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     The Chicken himself attributed this punishment to his having had the misfortune to get into Chancery early in the proceedings, when he was severely fibbed by the Larkey one, and heavily grassed.

   • 1852, Thackeray, William Makepeace, “The Fight at Slaughter House”, in Men's Wives, page 16:

     As Biggs and his party arrived, I heard Hawkins say to Berry, "For heaven’s sake, my boy, fib with your right, and mind his left hand!"

   • 1865, Berkeley, Grantley, “Eton Boys”, in My Life and Recollections, volume 1, page 311:

     Then there was a wild scuffle and a furious outcry, and all the bargemen for a moment seemed to hug me and themselves too; when, as there was no room to hit out, in the phraseology of the ring, I fibbed at half-a-dozen waistcoats and faces with all my might and main.

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC, part sixth, page 207:

     Quoth he, "Thou dost surely jest when thou sayest that thou dost not understand such words. Answer me this: Hast thou ever fibbed a chouse quarrons in the Rome pad for the loure in his bung?"

Synonyms

• pummel

Derived terms

• fibbing (“pummelling”)
• fibbing-gloak
• fibbing-match

References

• Farmer, John Stephen (1891) Slang and Its Analogues‎^[3], volume 2, page 387

Etymology 4

Short for Fibonacci.

Noun

fib (plural fibs)

1. (neologism) A kind of experimental poem where the number of syllables in each line is the next succeeding Fibonacci number.

See also

etymologically unrelated terms

• A-fib
• a-fib
• v-fib
• V-fib

 

Anagrams

• BFI, BIF, FBI, IBF, bif

Volapük

Noun

fib (nominative plural fibs)

1. weakness

Declension

declension of fib

	singular	plural
nominative	fib	fibs
genitive	fiba	fibas
dative	fibe	fibes
accusative	fibi	fibis
vocative 1	o fib!	o fibs!
predicative 2	fibu	fibus

• ¹ status as a case is disputed
• ² in later, non-classical Volapük only

Derived terms

• fibot