[Fa.bi.an] adj (1777) 1 a: of, relating to, or in the manner of the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus known for his defeat of Hannibal in the Second Punic War by the avoidance of decisive contests b: cautious, dilatory
2. [the Fabian Society; fr. the members' belief in slow rather than revolutionary change in government]: of, relating to, or being a society of socialists organized in England in 1884 to spread socialist principles gradually -- Fabian n -- Fa.bi.an.ism n