belie.
To lie around; encompass.
Meaning & usage
To lie around; encompass.
To surround; beleaguer.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English belyen, beliggen, from Old English beliċġan, biliċġan (“to lie around, surround, hedge in, encompass”), from Proto-West Germanic *biliggjan, from Proto-Germanic *biligjaną (“to lie around”). Equivalent to be- (“around, by”) + lie (“to be positioned”).
To tell lies about.
To give a false representation of.
Her smooth complexion and dark hair belie her actual age.
To contradict, to show (something) to be false.
Her obvious nervousness belied what she said.
To call a liar; to accuse of falsehood.
To fill with lies; to lie to.
To conceal the contradictory or ironic presence of (something).
His calm demeanor belied his inner sense of guilt.
To show, evince or demonstrate (something) to be present, particularly something deemed contradictory or ironic.
To mimic; to counterfeit.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English belyen, beleoȝen, from Old English belēogan (“to deceive by lying, be mistaken”), from Proto-West Germanic *bileugan (“to belie”). Equivalent to be- (“about”) + lie (“to deceive”). Compare Dutch beliegen (“to lie about, tell lies”), German belügen (“to lie to someone”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.