lying

¹

[lahy-ing]

noun

1. the telling of lies, or false statements; untruthfulness.

   From boyhood, he has never been good at lying.

   Synonyms: prevarication, mendacity, falsity, falsehood
   Antonyms: veracity, truth

adjective

1. telling or containing lies; deliberately untruthful; deceitful; false.

   a lying report.

   Synonyms: counterfeit, sham, fallacious, mendacious, misleading, deceptive
   Antonyms: trustworthy, accurate, correct, actual, candid, true

lying

²

[lahy-ing]

verb

1. present participle of lie.

lying

¹

/ ˈlaɪɪŋ /

verb

1. the present participle and gerund of lie 1

lying

²

/ ˈlaɪɪŋ /

verb

1. the present participle and gerund of lie 2

Other Word Forms

• lyingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of lying¹

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English; lie ¹, -ing ¹, -ing ²

Example Sentences

The Libyan Red Crescent shared images of its crew administering aid to survivors, as well as black body bags lying on the ground.

Read more on BBC

"I just don't think Alan would be able to comprehend the enormous sense of gratitude we have to him for being our patron and for putting himself through all that lying and deceit."

Read more on BBC

I’ve treated elderly patients who had been found wandering the streets, lying in their own excrement or simply dehydrated because of gaps in care.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It’s misdirection and lying and showmanship on an internationally grand scale, but it’s more “Mission: Impossible” than David Copperfield.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Virginia depicted herself and her husband Leonard “lying crushed under an immense manuscript of Gertrude Stein’s”—and so, literary modernism’s eccentric pioneer was rejected by its suavest representative.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• misleading