English Dictionary

FAIRY STORY

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fairy story mean? 

FAIRY STORY (noun)
  The noun FAIRY STORY has 2 senses:

1. a story about fairies; told to amuse childrenplay

2. an interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuseplay

  Familiarity information: FAIRY STORY used as a noun is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


FAIRY STORY (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A story about fairies; told to amuse children

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

fairy story; fairy tale; fairytale

Hypernyms ("fairy story" is a kind of...):

narration; narrative; story; tale (a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program)

Domain member category:

Bluebeard ((fairytale) a monstrous villain who marries seven women; he kills the first six for disobedience)


Sense 2

Meaning:

An interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

cock-and-bull story; fairy story; fairy tale; fairytale; song and dance

Hypernyms ("fairy story" is a kind of...):

fib; story; tale; taradiddle; tarradiddle (a trivial lie)


 Context examples 


I know that my juvenile experiences went for little or nothing then; and that life was more like a great fairy story, which I was just about to begin to read, than anything else.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't." (English proverb)

"Boys will be boys and play boyish games." (Latin proverb)

"You reap what you sow." (Arabic proverb)

"A curse turns against the one who uttered it." (Corsican proverb)



ALSO IN ENGLISH DICTIONARY:


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