fabulate

American  

[fab-yuh-leyt] / ˈfæb yəˌleɪt /

verb (used without object)

fabulated, fabulating

1. to tell invented stories; create fables or stories filled with fantasy.

2. to relate an event as a fable.

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Other Word Forms

• fabulation noun
• fabulator noun

Explanation

To fabulate is to tell a tall tale — in other words, to lie. You might be tempted to fabulate a story about why you don't have your homework, but you should probably just tell the truth. Fabulate shares a Latin root, fabula, "story or tale," with fable. Strictly speaking, when someone writes or tells fables along the lines of The Tortoise and the Hare, they fabulate. More often, it's a fancy way to describe what a liar does: "He fabulated his entire resume, claiming he went to Harvard and served in the Peace Corps before he turned 21!"

Example Sentences

Later stages are at times accompanied by inclination to fabulate, loss of judgment, disorientation, narrowing of the external interests, episodes of confusion and hallucinatory delirium.

From Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension: with Chapters on Blood Pressure, 3rd Edition. by Warfield, Louis Marshall

People who commit these falsehoods may be people of talent, and, as Goethe says of himself, may have ``desire to fabulate.''

From Criminal Psychology; a manual for judges, practitioners, and students by Gross, Hans Gustav Adolf