belie

• bely

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɪˈlʌɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /bɪˈlaɪ/, /bəˈlaɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ

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.

belie (third-person singular simple present belies, present participle belying, simple past belay, past participle belain)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To lie around; encompass.
2. (transitive, obsolete, of an army) To surround; beleaguer.

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”).

belie (third-person singular simple present belies, present participle belying, simple past and past participle belied)

1. (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.

2. (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 […].

3. (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.

4. (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.

5. (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 […]

6. (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.

7. (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.

• (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

• Elbie