Definition

Noun: 1. A story about fairies; told to amuse children: A narrative, often traditional or folkloric, that features magical creatures like fairies, elves, or goblins, and typically involves enchantment and fantasy, intended primarily for children's entertainment. 2. An interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse: A fabricated or wildly exaggerated account of events that is not believable, frequently used to justify or explain something.

Usage Examples

• Meaning 1 (Story about fairies):
  • The grandmother told the children a fairy story about a tiny elf who lived in the garden.
  • Many classic fairy stories involve a hero overcoming a wicked witch with the help of magical beings.
• Meaning 2 (Implausible excuse):
  • His explanation for being late was a complete fairy story about his car turning into a pumpkin.
  • The politician's promise to solve all problems without any cost sounded like a fairy story to the skeptical public.

Advanced Usage

• Used attributively: The term can be used as a modifier before another noun to describe something as belonging to or resembling such a story.
  • They lived in a fairy-story cottage with a thatched roof and a winding path.
  • The film has a fairy-story ending where everyone lives happily ever after.

Variants and Related Words

• Fairy tale (n): This is the most common and direct synonym for both meanings of "fairy story."
• Fable (n): A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral lesson.
• Tall tale (n): An exaggerated, unreliable story, similar to the second meaning of "fairy story."

Synonyms

• For Meaning 1: fairy tale, folk tale, fantasy, children's story.
• For Meaning 2: fabrication, falsehood, cock-and-bull story, tall tale, lie.

Related Idioms

• A fairy-tale ending: An improbably perfect and happy conclusion to a sequence of events.
  • Against all odds, their business succeeded, giving them a real fairy-tale ending.
• To live in a fairy tale: To be unrealistic or out of touch with reality.
  • If you think you can get everything you want without working, you're living in a fairy tale.

Noun

1. an interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse
2. a story about fairies; told to amuse children