Aesopian
Americanadjective
-
of, relating to, or characteristic of Aesop or his fables.
a story that points an Aesopian moral.
-
conveying meaning by hint, euphemism, innuendo, or the like.
In the candidate's Aesopian language, “soft on Communism” was to be interpreted as “Communist sympathizer.”
Etymology
Origin of Aesopian
1870–75; < Late Latin Aesōpi ( us ) + -an
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If Brasher sometimes tends to moralize when he writes about birds, it isn’t Aesopian.
From Washington Post • Apr. 29, 2023
Beast epics used some of the Aesopian material, but they were much longer and more novelistic.
From The New Yorker • Apr. 27, 2015
Terry has noticed, as have others, the Aesopian motifs that occur, and includes slender, playful versions, sometimes modernised, of Aesop's fables himself.
From The Guardian • May 28, 2013
Each moved with hesitant steps to dominate the other; leaders on both sides spoke in oblique and Aesopian language that could not be pinned down as either war, peace or compromise.
From Time Magazine Archive
His Aesopian Fables were written in Latin verse.
From Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Wright, Elizur
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
