Fictile ware, ware made of any material which is molded or shaped while
soft; hence, pottery of any sort.
-- Fic"tile*ness, n. -- Fic*til"i*ty (#), n.
Fic"tion (?), n. [F. fiction, L. fictio, fr. fingere, fictum to form,
shape, invent, feign. See Feign.] 1. The act of feigning, inventing, or
imagining; as, by a mere fiction of the mind. Bp. Stillingfleet.
2. That which is feigned, invented, or imagined; especially, a feigned
or invented story, whether oral or written. Hence: A story told in
order to deceive; a fabrication; -- opposed to fact, or reality.
The fiction of those golden apples kept by a dragon.
Sir W. Raleigh.
When it could no longer be denied that her flight had been
voluntary, numerous fictions were invented to account for it.
Macaulay.
3. Fictitious literature; comprehensively, all works of imagination;
specifically, novels and romances.
The office of fiction as a vehicle of instruction and moral
elevation has been recognized by most if not all great educators.
Dict. of Education.
4. (Law) An assumption of a possible thing as a fact, irrespective of
the question of its truth. Wharton.
5. Any like assumption made for convenience, as for passing more
rapidly over what is not disputed, and arriving at points really at
issue.
Syn. -- Fabrication; invention; fable; falsehood. -- Fiction,
Fabrication. Fiction is opposed to what is real; fabrication to what is
true. Fiction is designed commonly to amuse, and sometimes to instruct;
a fabrication is always intended to mislead and deceive. In the novels
of Sir Walter Scott we have fiction of the highest order. The poems of
Ossian, so called, were chiefly fabrications by Macpherson.
Fic"tion*al (?), a. Pertaining to, or characterized by, fiction;
fictitious; romantic."Fictional rather than historical." Latham.
Fic"tion*ist, n. A writer of fiction. [R.] Lamb.
Fic"tious (?), a. Fictitious. [R.] Prior.
Fic*ti"tious (?), a. [L. fictitius. See Fiction.] Feigned; imaginary;
not real; fabulous; counterfeit; false; not genuine; as, fictitious
fame.
The human persons are as fictitious as the airy ones.
Pope.
-- Fic*ti"tious*ly, adv. -- Fic*ti"tious*ness, n.
Fic"tive (?), a. [Cf. F. fictif.] Feigned; counterfeit. "The fount of
fictive tears." Tennyson.
Fic"tor (?), n. [L.] An artist who models or forms statues and reliefs
in any plastic material. [R.] Elmes.
||Fi"cus (?), n. [L., a fig.] A genus of trees or shrubs, one species
||of which (F. Carica) produces the figs of commerce; the fig tree.
Ficus Indica is the banyan tree; F. religiosa, the peepul tree; F.
elastica, the India-rubber tree.
Fid (?), n. [Prov. E. fid a small, thick lump.] 1. (Naut.) A square bar
of wood or iron, used to support the topmast, being passed through a
hole or mortise at its heel, and resting on the trestle trees.