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belie

[bih-lahy]
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verb (used with object), be·lied, be·ly·ing.
  1. to show to be false; contradict: His trembling hands belied his calm voice.
  2. to misrepresent: The newspaper belied the facts.
  3. to act unworthily according to the standards of (a tradition, one's ancestry, one's faith, etc.).
  4. Archaic. to lie about; slander.
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Origin of belie

before 1000; Middle English belyen, Old English belēogan. See be-, lie1
Related formsbe·li·er, nounun·be·lied, adjective

Synonyms

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1. refute, disprove, controvert, repudiate, confute, gainsay. 1, 2. See misrepresent.

Antonyms

1. prove, verify, support.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

negate, contradict, repudiate, mislead, misstate, distort, contravene, deny, disagree, negative, explode, controvert, oppose, confute, gainsay, pervert, hide, disguise, color, warp

Examples from the Web for belying

Historical Examples

  • Toward herself, in particular, his feelings were too deep for him to succeed in belying them.

    Dust

    Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius

  • You're a rum fellow, to belying out on the beach on a cold night.

  • Insisting on a future, he could not do homage to the belying simulacrum of the present.

  • He was on his guard directly, and said coldly, "You have been belying me to my very clerk."

    Hard Cash

    Charles Reade

  • He glanced at her and their eyes met, the reproach in his own belying his words.

    Jude the Obscure

    Thomas Hardy

British Dictionary definitions for belying

belie

verb -lies, -lying or -lied (tr)
  1. to show to be untrue; contradict
  2. to misrepresent; disguise the nature ofthe report belied the real extent of the damage
  3. to fail to justify; disappoint
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Derived Formsbelier, noun

Word Origin

Old English belēogan; related to Old Frisian biliuga, Old High German biliugan; see be-, lie 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for belying

belie

v.

Old English beleogan "to deceive by lies," from be- + lie (v.1) "to lie, tell lies." Current sense of "to contradict as a lie" is first recorded 1640s. The other verb lie once also had a formation like this, from Old English belicgan, which meant "to encompass, beleaguer," and in Middle English was a euphemism for "to have sex with" (i.e. "to lie with carnally").

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper