fibbing

Word family

• fib
  verbB1
• fib
  nounB1
• fibber
  nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All three describe saying something that is not true, but they differ sharply in seriousness and intent. 'Lie' is the strongest and most general word — it can describe anything from a tiny falsehood to a major deception, and it always carries a negative moral judgment. 'Fib' is much lighter: it belongs in informal, everyday situations involving small, unimportant matters, often told to avoid hurting someone's feelings. 'Stretch the truth' is not a full lie; it means exaggerating or bending the facts rather than inventing them from nothing. A child might fib about eating their vegetables ('I ate them all' when they did not). Someone stretching the truth might say 'I almost finished the whole book' when they read half. A lie about a serious matter — losing a job, cheating on a test — would never be called a fib without sounding odd.

Common collocations

Etymology

The word 'fib' is a shortening of 'fibble-fable,' which was a playful 16th-century English reduplication of 'fable' (a made-up story). The original 'fibble-fable' meant nonsense or trivial chatter, and by the late 1500s the clipped form 'fib' had come to mean a small, unimportant lie.