legend

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical.
• noun A body or collection of such stories.
• noun One that inspires legends or achieves legendary fame.
• noun An inscription or title on an object, such as a coin.
• noun An explanatory caption accompanying an illustration.
• noun An explanatory table or list of the symbols appearing on a map or chart.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To narrate or celebrate in or as in a legend.
• To furnish with an inscription; inscribe with a legend: as, “a legended tomb,”
• noun In the early church, a selection of readings from Scripture appointed for use at divine service; later, and more especially, the chronicle or register of the lives of the saints, formerly read at matins and in the refectories of religious houses.
• noun An entertaining story, especially in early times one relating to wonders or miracles told of a saint; hence, any unauthentic and improbable or non-historical narrative handed down from early times; a tradition.
• noun A musical composition set to a poetical story, or intended to express such a story without words.
• noun An inscription or device of any kind; particularly, the inscription on a shield or coat or arms, or the explanatory inscription on a monument or under a plan or drawing, or the inscription which accompanies a picture, whether descriptive or supposed to stand for words used by the persons represented in the picture.
• noun In numismatics, the words or letters stamped on the obverse or the reverse of a coin or medal: sometimes differentiated from, inscription as the reading around the circumference of a coin or medal, and sometimes as all that is inscribed excepting the name of the sovereign or other person represented.
• noun A roll; list; book.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To tell or narrate, as a legend.
• noun That which is appointed to be read; especially, a chronicle or register of the lives of saints, formerly read at matins, and in the refectories of religious houses.
• noun A story respecting saints; especially, one of a marvelous nature.
• noun Any wonderful story coming down from the past, but not verifiable by historical record; a myth; a fable.
• noun An inscription, motto, or title, esp. one surrounding the field in a medal or coin, or placed upon an heraldic shield or beneath an engraving or illustration.
• noun See under Golden.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A story of unknown origin describing plausible but extraordinary past events.
• noun A story in which a kernel of truth is embellished to an unlikely degree.
• noun A leading protagonist in a historical legend.
• noun A person of extraordinary accomplishment.
• noun A key to the symbols and color codes on a map, chart, etc.
• noun The text on a coin.
• noun A fabricated backstory for a spy, with associated documents and records; a cover story.
• noun UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, slang A cool, nice or helpful person, especially one who is male.
• verb archaic, transitive To tell or narrate; to recount.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun brief description accompanying an illustration
• noun a story about mythical or supernatural beings or events