belie
English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English belyen, beliggen, from Old English belicgan, bilicgan (“to lie around, surround, hedge in, encompass”); equivalent to be- (“around, by”) + lie (to be positioned). Cognate with German beliegen.
Verb
belie (third-person singular simple present belies, present participle belying, simple past belay, past participle belain)
Etymology 2
From Middle English belyen, beleoȝen, from Old English belēogan (“to deceive by lying, be mistaken”), from Proto-Germanic *bileuganą (“to belie”); equivalent to be- (“about”) + lie (to deceive). Cognate with Old Frisian biliaga (“to belie”), Dutch beliegen (“to belie”), German belügen (“to lie to”), Swedish beljuga (“to tell lies about”).
Verb
belie (third-person singular simple present belies, present participle belying, simple past and past participle belied)
- (transitive) To tell lies about; to slander. [from 13th c.]
- c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act I Scene iii:
- Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him.
- c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act I Scene iii:
- (transitive) To give a false representation of, to misrepresent. [from 17th c.]
- c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act II Scene ii:
- Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts:
- 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv:
- He found it by experience, and made good use of it in his own person, if Plutarch belie him not […].
- c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act II Scene ii:
- (transitive) To contradict, to show (something) to be false. [from 17th c.]
- Her obvious nervousness belied what she said.
- Dryden
- Their trembling hearts belie their boastful tongues.
- (transitive, perhaps nonstandard) To conceal the contradictory or ironic presence of (something).
- His calm demeanor belied his inner sense of guilt.
- 2013, Elizabeth Koh, "Fighting Pest, Farmers Find Strange Ally: A Drought," New York Times, August 31, 2013
- The rosy outlook belies a struggle to achieve statewide eradication that has persisted since the insect first crossed the border from Mexico around 1892.
- (transitive, perhaps nonstandard) To show, evince, demonstrate: to show (something) to be present, particularly something deemed contradictory or ironic.
- 1993, Carol A. Mossman, Politics and Narratives of Birth: Gynocolonization from Rousseau to Zola, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 28:
- A host of evidence is adduced by the accused, evidence whose sometimes self-contradictory nature belies a certain desperation.
- 2016 August 30, Jeanne Marie Laskas, “Inside the Federal Bureau Of Way Too Many Guns”, *GQ* online:
- […] a low, flat, boring building that belies its past as an IRS facility […]
- 1993, Carol A. Mossman, Politics and Narratives of Birth: Gynocolonization from Rousseau to Zola, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 28:
- (obsolete) To mimic; to counterfeit.
- Dryden
- Which durst, with horses hoofs that beat the ground,
- And martial brass, belie the thunder's sound.
- Dryden's Fables.
- The shape of man, and imitated beast
- The walk, the words, the gesture could supply,
- The habit mimick, and the mien belie.
- Dryden
- (transitive, obsolete) To fill with lies.
- c. 1608-10, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act III Scene iv:
- 'Tis slander,
- Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
- Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
- Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
- All corners of the world.
- c. 1608-10, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act III Scene iv:
Synonyms
- (to give a false representation): misrepresent
- (to tell lies about): calumniate
- (to contradict or show to be false): contradict, give lie to, give the lie to
Translations
|
|
|
|