Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To give a false representation to; misrepresent: "He spoke roughly in order to belie his air of gentility” ( James Joyce).
- v. To show to be false; contradict: Their laughter belied their outward grief.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lie around; encompass; especially, to lie around, as an army; beleaguer.
- To tell lies concerning; calumniate by false reports.
- To give the lie to; show to be false; contradict.
- To act unworthily of; fail to equal or come up to; disappoint: as, to belie one's hopes or expectations.
- To give a false representation of; conceal the true character of.
- To fill with lies.
- To counterfeit; mimic; feign resemblance to.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive, obsolete To lie around; encompass.
- v. transitive, obsolete To surround; beleaguer.
- v. transitive, perhaps nonstandard To show, evince, demonstrate: to show (something) to be present.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To show to be false; to convict of, or charge with, falsehood.
- v. To give a false representation or account of.
- v. To tell lie about; to calumniate; to slander.
- v. obsolete To mimic; to counterfeit.
- v. obsolete To fill with lies.
WordNet 3.0
- v. represent falsely
- v. be in contradiction with
Etymologies
- From Middle English belyen, beleoȝen, from Old English belēogan ("to deceive by lying, be mistaken"), equivalent to be- (“about”) + lie (to deceive). Cognate with Old Frisian biliaga ("to belie"), Dutch beliegen ("to belie"), German belügen ("to lie to"), Swedish beljuga ("to tell lies about"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English bilien, from Old English belēogan, to deceive with lies; see leugh- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But these terms belie the simplicity of what really happened.”
Jonathan Kim: ReThink Review: American Casino -- Gambling on Timebomb Loans
“Yea, and as for us, beloved pair of pious Emperors, shining forth from the purple, connected with the dearest names of father and son, and not allowing the name to belie the relationship, but striving to set in all other aspects also an example of superhuman love, whose preoccupation is Orthodoxy rather than pride in the imperial diadem,—it is in these things that the deed which is before our eyes instigates us to take pride.”
“Spectacular shots which kind of belie the danger which is involved here.”
“But today, "belie" has lost some of that richness, and just means "expose as a falsehood", as in, say, "The evidence belies the stated reasons for going to war.”
“The word "belie" seems to like shifting its meaning in baffling ways.”
“But a recent string of high-profile attacks that the Taliban have taken credit for belie that rosy assessment.”
The Huffington Post: Medea Benjamin: Stop Sacrificing US Soldiers for Afghan Debacle
“I once worried that it was because I had somehow developed into an emotionally detached person, but my love for my own three children and my partner belie this view.”
“But the facts belie such easy answers, they wrote.”
The Wall Street Journal: Former White House Economists Say Deficit Is 'Severe Threat'
“While I am quite sure you sincerely believe in everything you are saying, your own words belie your professed respect for public school teachers: We can build an accountability system based on data we trust and a standard that is honest--one that recognizes and rewards great teaching, gives new or struggling teachers the support they need to succeed, and deals fairly, efficiently, and compassionately with teachers who are simply not up to the job.”
The Huffington Post: Randy Turner: An Open Letter to Arne Duncan
“But these examples belie a consistent lack of interest in, understanding of, or even downright hostility toward women's issues.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘belie’.
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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Always heard but never QUITE knew
crass, sublimate, mien, cagey, expectoration, inexorable, vacillation, singular, interpolation, iconoclastic, belie, solipsist and 28 more...
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Article's related words
reading 2 articles a week and here will reference unknown words, weekly!
fervor, belie, inure, hiatus, ambivalent, chasten, revere, despise, expurgate, edify, neologism, inchoate and 13 more...
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Let's Talk About Family!
idiosyncrasy, acerbic, sardonic, mordant, aesthetics, prolific, discerning, eclectic, iconoclast, heterodox, disheveled, deplorable and 36 more...
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Letter to a Christian Nation
Vocab. from "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris
impart, pretension, divisive, retrograde, bellicose, languish, parse, corroborate, anesthetize, graven, iota, apostate and 107 more...
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fav1
ostensibly, fait accompli, edification, machination, vamp, abstruse, ebullient, tantamount, reductio, asymptotic, ad hominem, syllogism and 15 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for belie.
billyvonraven from Webster's New Universal Unabridged: 3. to act unworthily according to the standards of (a tradition, one's ancestry, etc.) Mar 26, 2012