Aesopian
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or characteristic of Aesop or his fables.
a story that points an Aesopian moral.
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conveying meaning by hint, euphemism, innuendo, or the like.
In the candidate's Aesopian language, “soft on Communism” was to be interpreted as “Communist sympathizer.”
Etymology
Origin of Aesopian
1870–75; < Late Latin Aesōpi ( us ) + -an
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Thus far, however, this effort has yielded only a few dozen genetically modified long-haired mice, which evokes the Aesopian adage about the mountain that labored and brought forth a mouse.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026
If Brasher sometimes tends to moralize when he writes about birds, it isn’t Aesopian.
From Washington Post • Apr. 29, 2023
Beast epics used some of the Aesopian material, but they were much longer and more novelistic.
From The New Yorker • Apr. 27, 2015
Terry has noticed, as have others, the Aesopian motifs that occur, and includes slender, playful versions, sometimes modernised, of Aesop's fables himself.
From The Guardian • May 28, 2013
Babrius, a Greek who lived about 100 B.C., made a comprehensive collection of Aesopian fables which Phaedrus imitated with considerable closeness. 5-7.
From Readings from Latin Verse With Notes by Bushnell, Curtis C.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
