a deliberately false or improbable account
"The detective dismissed the witness's story as nothing more than an elaborate fable designed to confuse the jury."
A fictitious narrative intended to enforce some useful truth or precept, usually with animals, etc. as characters; an apologue. Prototypically, Aesop's Fables.
"After reading the children's book about a fox and grapes, my teacher explained that it was a fable meant to teach us not to say we can't do something just because we fail at it once."
To compose fables; hence, to write or speak fiction; to write or utter what is not true.
"The storyteller was accused of a fable when he claimed his neighbor had turned into a giant during the storm."
The word "fable" comes from the Latin fābula, which is derived from the verb meaning "to speak." It entered English through Middle English and Old French.