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
The second work of our poetess consists of a collection of fables, generally called Aesopian, which she translated into French verse.
From The Lay of Marie by Betham, Matilda
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.
