lying

The act of one who lies, or keeps low to the ground.

Adjective

  1. Tending to tell lies, untruthful, mendacious
    • Gloster: Then, Saunder, sit there, the lyingest knave in Christendom. - 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies....
    • Sly: Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom. - c. 1590–1592 (date written),...
    • “God, how you lie, skinny! You’re about the lyingest woman I’ve ever met. I’ll be damned if I’ll keep on asking questions when it’s plain as day you’re not about to give out any answers. - 1998, Charlotte Vale Allen,...

Origin

lie (“to intentionally give false information”) + -ing.

Forms

more lying lyinger most lying lyingest

Derived

lyingly nonlying testilying unlying

Noun Entry 2

  1. The act of one who lies, or keeps low to the ground.
    • 1854, Saint Augustine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXIV, translated by Philip Schaff et al. But whom could the lyings in wait of the human heart escape?

Origin

lie (“to rest in a horizontal position”) + -ing.

Forms

lyings

Derived

deep-lying downlying high-lying inlying low-lying lying flat lying-in lying in wait lying panel overlying take lying down uplying

Noun Entry 3

  1. An act or telling a lie or falsehood; the practice of telling lies.
    • [W]hether a man would fain be pleased with sin, or be quiet and fearless when he hath sinned, or continue in it, or persuade others to it, he must do it by false propositions, by lyings, and such weak discourses as none...
    • Trump’s lying is no less constant or blatant than in 2016, but by now it feels familiar, already priced in. What more is there to say about the “war on truth” a decade into Trump’s political career? - 2025 October 2,...

Forms

lyings

Verb form of, gerund

  1. present participle and gerund of lie (“to rest in a horizontal position”)
    • Without shutting herself up from her family ... or lying awake the whole night to indulge meditation, Elinor found every day afforded her leisure enough to think of Edward. - 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility 19

Verb form of, gerund

  1. present participle and gerund of lie (“to intentionally give false information”)

Verb form of, participle

  1. simple past and past participle of lye

Origin

lye. (a chemical liquid)