I. fib 1 /fɪb/ BrE AmE noun [countable] spoken
[ Date: 1600-1700 ; Origin: Perhaps from fable ]
a small unimportant lie ⇨ white lie :
He’s been known to tell fibs.
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THESAURUS
▪ lie noun [countable] something you say or write that you know is untrue:
Would you tell lies to protect a friend?
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The allegation is a complete lie.
▪ white lie noun [countable] informal a lie that you tell to avoid upsetting someone:
We all tell white lies sometimes.
▪ fib noun [countable] informal a lie, especially about something that is not very important – used especially by children:
Have you been telling fibs?
▪ porky noun [countable usually plural] British English informal a lie – a very informal use:
He’s been telling porkies again.
▪ falsehood noun [countable] formal a statement that is not true, especially one that is intended to give people the wrong idea about someone or something:
He described the allegations as malicious falsehoods.
▪ untruth noun [countable] formal a lie – used especially when you want to avoid saying the word lie :
Some workers go off and tell untruths about the organisations for which they are working.
▪ fabrication noun [uncountable and countable] formal a story or claim that someone has invented in order to deceive someone, or the act of doing this:
The claim was described as a fabrication by the police prosecutor.
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He dismissed the charges as pure fabrication.
▪ libel noun [uncountable] law the crime of writing lies that could make people have a bad opinion of someone, especially in a newspaper or magazine:
She sued the newspaper for libel.
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libel laws
▪ slander noun [uncountable and countable] law the crime of speaking lies that could make people have a bad opinion of someone, or an untrue statement which does this:
He’s threatening to sue them for slander.
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a slander on the good name of the company
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Linking his name to terrorism was a slander.
II. fib 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle fibbed , present participle fibbing ) [intransitive] spoken
to tell a small unimportant lie:
I think you’re fibbing.
—fibber noun [countable]
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THESAURUS
▪ lie/tell a lie to deliberately tell someone something that is not true:
She had lied to protect her son.
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Are you accusing me of telling lies?
▪ fib verb [intransitive] informal to lie, especially about something that is not very important – used especially by children:
Dan’s fibbing. I didn’t hit him.
▪ make something up/invent something to invent a story, explanation etc in order to deceive someone:
I didn’t want to go so I made up an excuse and said I was busy.
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He invented the tale to prevent his parents from finding out the truth.
▪ mislead verb [transitive] to make someone believe something that is not true by giving them false or incomplete information:
The government misled the public over the war.
▪ be economical with the truth to only tell someone part of the truth – often used when saying indirectly that someone is lying:
He admitted that he had perhaps been economical with the truth.
▪ perjure yourself/commit perjury to tell a lie in a court of law:
He had perjured himself in court.
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Witnesses will be prosecuted if they commit perjury.