fibbing
Stretching the truth
Fibbing is telling small, harmless lies.
The word carries a lighter moral weight than lying—fibs are typically trivial falsehoods told to avoid awkwardness or spare feelings rather than to deceive for gain: She caught him fibbing about eating the last cookie.
Children are often accused of fibbing rather than lying, softening the accusation.
Misleading speech avoiding directness
- falsehoodDeliberate untrue statement
- untruthA false statement
- misrepresentationFalse or misleading statement
- distortionTwisting from original state
equivocation · disingenuousness · insincerity · duplicity · guile · artifice · subterfuge · deceitfulness
Causing no injury
- innocentFree from moral wrong
- tactfulSocially sensitive and careful
- well-intentionedHaving good motives
- protectiveServing to guard
benign · diplomatic · polite · social · face-saving · kind · merciful · little white lie
New device or method
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- taleSpoken or written narrative
- yarnTwisted strand for crafts
- whopperOutsized thing or untruth
tall tale · fish story · embellishment · exaggeration · concoction · make-believe · fantasy · stretching the truth
prevarication
Misleading speech avoiding directness
- falsehoodDeliberate untrue statement
- untruthA false statement
- misrepresentationFalse or misleading statement
distortion · equivocation · disingenuousness · insincerity · duplicity · guile · artifice · subterfuge · deceitfulness · cunning
harmless
Causing no injury
- innocentFree from moral wrong
- tactfulSocially sensitive and careful
- well-intentionedHaving good motives
protective · benign · diplomatic · polite · social · face-saving · kind · merciful · little white lie · half-truth
invention
New device or method
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- taleSpoken or written narrative
- yarnTwisted strand for crafts
whopper · tall tale · fish story · embellishment · exaggeration · concoction · make-believe · fantasy · stretching the truth · fiction
misinform
Convey false details
deceive · dupe · bamboozle · beguile · bluff · obfuscate · confuse · lead astray · pull the wool over · snow
- dirty trickscheating, lying, deceit, trickery, deception
- deceptionlie, lies, lying, fake, fraud
- falsehoodslie, lies, lying, untruth, falsehood
- honestyhonesty, truthfulness, candor, sincerity, dishonesty
- ethicsmorality, deontology, dignity, sanctity of life, utilitarianism
- minor offensesminor offense, white lie, petty offense, jaywalking, misdemeanor
fibbingconfessing
Admitting to a fault
admitting · coming clean · owning up · fessing up · acknowledging