lie
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: golf
hobbies
law
lifestyle
medicine
sciences
sports
Etymology: From Middle English lien, liggen, from Old English liċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *liggjan, from Proto-Germanic *ligjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.
Cognates
Cognate with Yola lee, lidge (“to lie”), leigh, leiough (“to idle”), North Frisian lade, lai, laie, lei, lii, läde, läie (“to lie; to lay”), Saterland Frisian lääse (“to lie; to lay”), West Frisian lizze (“to lie”), Alemannic German ligge (“to lie”), Central Franconian lijje (“to lie”), Dutch and Dutch Low Saxon liggen (“to lie”), German liegen (“to lie”), German Low German ligge, liggen (“to lie”), Luxembourgish leien (“to lie”), Yiddish ליגן (lign, “to lie”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ligge (“to lie”), Faroese and Icelandic liggja (“to lie”), Norwegian Nynorsk ligge, liggja, liggje (“to lie”), Swedish ligga (“to lie”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan, “to lie, to rest”); and with Irish laigh, luigh (“to lie”), Manx lhie (“lie; lay”), Scottish Gaelic laigh (“lie; lay”), Faliscan 𐌋𐌄𐌂𐌄𐌕 (lecet, “he lies down”), Latin lectus (“bed”), South Picene 𐌅𐌄𐌉𐌀𐌕 (veiat, “to lie”), Ancient Greek λέχομαι (lékhomai, “to lie down”), Albanian lag (“band, encampment, troop”), Belarusian ляжа́ць (ljažácʹ, “to lie”), Bulgarian лежа́ (ležá, “to lie”), Czech ležet (“to lie”), Macedonian лежи (leži, “to lie”), Polish leżeć (“to lie”), Russian лежа́ть (ležátʹ, “to lie”), Serbo-Croatian лѐжати, lèžati (“to lie”), Slovene ležáti (“to lie”), Ukrainian лежа́ти (ležáty, “to lie”), Tocharian B lyäk- (“to lie”).
As a noun for position, the noun has the same etymology above as the verb.
Inflected forms:
form: lies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: lying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: lay
pos: verb
tags: past
form: laid
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
past
form: lain
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: laid
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
participle
past
form: lien
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
participle
past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: lie
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: lie
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: lay
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: lie
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: lyest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: lay
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: layst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: lies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: lyeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: lay
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: lie
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: lay
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: lie
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: lay
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: lie
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: lying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: lain
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: lien
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: lies
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The book lies on the table; the snow lies on the roof; he lies in his coffin.
Under an oak were lying asleep a pair of shepherds.
Though ye haue lien among the pots, yet shall yee bee as the wings of a doue, couered with siluer, and her feathers with yellow gold.
The watchful traveller […] / Lay down again, and closed his weary eyes.
Our uninquiring corpses lie more low / Than our life's curiosity doth go.
The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.
gloss: To be placed or situated.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Ying-yang county lies 70 li southwest of the modern Teng-feng county, Honan.
Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.
gloss: To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition.
pos: verb
tags: copulative
intransitive
examples: to lie waste; to lie fallow; to lie open; to lie hidden; to lie grieving; to lie under one's displeasure; to lie at the mercy of the waves
The paper does not lie smooth on the wall.
gloss: Used with in: to be or exist; to belong or pertain; to have an abiding place; to consist.
pos: verb
examples: Envy lies between beings equal in nature, though unequal in circumstances.
He that thinks that diversion may not lie in hard labour, forgets the early rising and hard riding of huntsmen.
gloss: Used with with: to have sexual relations with.
pos: verb
examples: And it came to passe after these things, that his masters wife cast her eyes vpon Ioseph, and shee said, Lie with me.
gloss: Used with on/upon: to be incumbent (on); to be the responsibility of a person.
pos: verb
gloss: To lodge; to sleep.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
examples: While I was now trifling at home, I saw London, […] where I lay one night only.
Mr. Quinion lay at our house that night.
gloss: To be still or quiet, like one lying down to rest.
pos: verb
examples: The Wind is lowd, and will not lie till the Ship be cleard of the dead.
gloss: To be sustainable; to be capable of being maintained.
pos: verb
examples: An appeal lies in this case from the ordinary to the arches.
gloss: The terrain and conditions surrounding the ball before it is struck.
pos: noun
gloss: The terrain and conditions surrounding the disc before it is thrown.
pos: noun
gloss: The position of a fetus in the womb.
pos: noun
gloss: A manner of lying; relative position.
pos: noun
gloss: An animal's lair.
pos: noun
Synonyms: alternative fact
anti-fact
invention
bluff
bollocks
bullshit
canard
cap
chin
clanker
contradiction
cram
disinformation
fabrication
falsehood
falsification
fib
flam
goof
hoax
hummer
inveracity
inverity
jive
lie
load of bull
load of crap
load of shit
mendacity
misinformation
mistruth
nonsense
nontruth
pile of crap
pile of shit
pork pie
porker
porky
prevarication
red flag
rubbish
story
swack-up
tall tale
terminological inexactitude
untruism
untruth
whopper
wisker
yanker
yed
Antonyms: fact
truth
verity
Related words: lay
a corresponding transitive version of this word
lees
lier
the cake is a lie
cry wolf
give the lie to
a lie has no legs
lie through one's teeth
I tell a lie
decoy
fake
imitate
Derived words: beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder
butter one's bread and lie in it
deep-lying
devil lies in the details
forelie
forlie
here lies
if you lie with dogs you will get fleas
interlie
let lie
let sleeping dogs lie
let the sleeping dogs lie
lie above
lie ahead
lie around
lie at one's door
lie at one's heart
lie at someone's door
lie at someone's heart
lie back
lie before
lie behind
lie by
lie doggo
lie down
lie ill in one's mouth
lie in ambush
lie in honor
lie-in
lie in
lie in repose
lie in state
lie in the bed one has made
lie in the way
lie in wait
lie low
lie off
lie on the oars
lie-over
lie over
lie rough
lie to
lie upon
lie waste
lie with
love-lies-bleeding
make one's bed and lie in it
mislie
overlie
how the land lies
sit-lie
superlie
that way madness lies
therein lies the rub
there lies the rub
truth lies at the bottom of a well
underlie
uneasy lies the head that wears a crown
you make the bed you lie in
lie like a rug
outlie
lie of the land
Translations: