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.
