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What is "fib"

Crossword clues for fib

fib
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
fib
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
tell
▪ If you're telling fibs, keep them simple, that's the rule, isn't it?
▪ The Gypsy expressed shock that I could tell such a fib, especially in this sacred place.
▪ So it's very likely she told you a few fibs.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I had to make up some fib about why I was late.
▪ You're not telling me a fib, are you?
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He had tackled the twin problems of the Ecclestone fib and the petrol crisis head on-by ignoring them.
▪ If you're telling fibs, keep them simple, that's the rule, isn't it?
▪ It was another one of those little fibs, of course, but no matter.
▪ So it's very likely she told you a few fibs.
▪ The fibs are of two kinds.
▪ The Gypsy expressed shock that I could tell such a fib, especially in this sacred place.
▪ These numbers may be a bit of a fib.
▪ They said they did it, but that was just a little fib.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He fibbed about his age.
▪ When she asked if they wanted to stay for tea, Larry fibbed and said they had a few errands to run.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Bernie, I fibbed a little, okay?
▪ Not much help to you, I know, but why should I fib and say I walked in?
▪ Puss had decided to fib a little and claim that his master was called the Marquis of Carabas.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fib

Fib \Fib\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fibbed; p. pr. & vb. n. Fibbing.] To speak falsely. [Colloq.]

Fib

Fib \Fib\, v. t. To tell a fib to. [R.]
--De Quincey.

Fib

Fib \Fib\, n. [Prob. fr. fable; cf. Prov. E. fibble-fabble nonsense.] A falsehood; a lie; -- used euphemistically.

They are very serious; they don't tell fibs.
--H. James.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fib

"a lie," especially a little one, "a white lie," 1610s, of uncertain origin, perhaps from fibble-fable "nonsense" (1580s), a reduplication of fable (n.).

fib

"tell trifling lies," 1680s, from fib (n.). Seldom, if ever, transitive. Related: Fibbed; fibbing; fibbery.

Wiktionary
fib

Etymology 1 n. (context informal English) A lie#Noun_2, especially one that is more or less inconsequential. vb. (context intransitive English) To lie, especially more or less inconsequentially. Etymology 2

n. (context medicine informal English) Short form of fibul

WordNet
fib

  1. v. tell a relatively insignificant lie; "Fibbing is not acceptable, even if you don't call it lying"

  2. [also: fibbing, fibbed]

fib

  1. n. a trivial lie; "he told a fib about eating his spinach"; "how can I stop my child from telling stories?" [syn: story, tale, tarradiddle, taradiddle]

  2. [also: fibbing, fibbed]

Wikipedia
Fib

A fib is a form of lying that is usually forgiven because it is not intended to deceive.

Fib may also refer to:

Fib (poetry)

Fib is an experimental Western poetry form, bearing similarities to haiku, but based on the Fibonacci sequence. That is, the typical fib and one version of the contemporary Western haiku both follow a strict structure. The typical fib is a six line, 20 syllable poem with a syllable count by line of 1/1/2/3/5/8 - with as many syllables per line as the line's corresponding place in the Fibonacci sequence; the specific form of contemporary Western haiku uses three (or fewer) lines of no more than 17 syllables in total. The only restriction on a Fib is that the syllable count follow the Fibonacci sequence. An example of a typical fib:

The form Pincus describes has had many poetic antecedents. John Frederick Nims discussed the concept and formal expressions of it as early as 1974, in his introduction to poetry, Western Wind. In 1981, The Figures Press published Ron Silliman's "Tjanting," in which Silliman adopts the number sequence to paragraph lengths. In her "Introduction" to The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, Editor Phillis Levin discusses ways in which the fibonacci number sequence is related to the development of the sonnet. Closer to Pincus's syllabic conception are Tony Leuzzi's three-stanza, 21-line poems, that follow a 1/1/2/3/5/8/13 structure and total 99 syllables. Marcia Birken and Anne C. Coon also discussed the fibonacci number sequence in their groundbreaking book, Discovering Patterns in Mathematics and Poetry. As Deborah Haar Clark has noted, "Fibonacci poetry is not new. It’s been around in one form or another for centuries, with works applying the numerical sequence to syllables, words, or letters." However, the six-line, 20-syllable fib itself was brought to wider public attention by Gregory K. Pincus on 1 April 2006. His blog has been the center of this new form of poetry. After Pincus published his blog on Fibs, they began appearing widely on the internet. Pincus wrote on his blog, "To my surprise (and joy), I continue to find new threads of Fibs popping up all around the Web. I've seen Fibs in over a dozen different languages, and I'd also note that today a cat left a post in the comments of The Fib, joining a priorly poetic dog, so I think it's safe to say that Fibs travel well."

Usage examples of "fib".

Lordship was there the day Lord Willoughby confronted me about my fib concerning Little Woodcote.

All in all, it took Elizabeth very little time to decide that her little fib was entirely justified.

Claribel had been brought up to be fair and not to fib unless she really had to.

We both even spoke about it when we were first making up fibs to tell Thomas and the others.

Sir Randolph yawned partway through those fibs of mine, which I considered very telling.

Technicals were strong and ran strong machines, like in the adventure fibs, where technicals were often the protags.

Her mate was an older glover named Kumnax, and as they lay back in the cubicle, soothed by air-dance fibs, he told her stories about past battles, special tactics, how to survive.

Old literature was not nearly as graphic as fibs, but it was different enough to involve her for a time.

Minogue fibbed while buying time so another part of his brain might penetrate the fog: why had Tynan called, if this was thirty years ago?

I think maybe we were fibbing about him looking like Charlton Heston in the Moses film.

Even better, the FIB had been after her for three months, and tagging her took me two days.

De Craye and Willoughby on the subject of his latest truancy, each gentleman trying to run him down in a palpable fib.

FIB busy with Brimstone while the real moneymaker goes out on the other side of the city.

He would sit in the center of his pentacle, stylus on his knee, listening with rapt attention, ticking me off when I introduced a more than usually obvious fib, and frequently interrupting to clarify some ambiguity.

We both even spoke about it when we were first making up fibs to tell Thomas and the others.