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  1. belie love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To give a false representation to; misrepresent: "He spoke roughly in order to belie his air of gentility” ( James Joyce).
  2. v. To show to be false; contradict: Their laughter belied their outward grief.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To lie around; encompass; especially, to lie around, as an army; beleaguer.
  2. To tell lies concerning; calumniate by false reports.
  3. To give the lie to; show to be false; contradict.
  4. To act unworthily of; fail to equal or come up to; disappoint: as, to belie one's hopes or expectations.
  5. To give a false representation of; conceal the true character of.
  6. To fill with lies.
  7. To counterfeit; mimic; feign resemblance to.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive, obsolete To lie around; encompass.
  2. v. transitive, obsolete To surround; beleaguer.
  3. v. transitive, perhaps nonstandard To show, evince, demonstrate: to show (something) to be present.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To show to be false; to convict of, or charge with, falsehood.
  2. v. To give a false representation or account of.
  3. v. To tell lie about; to calumniate; to slander.
  4. v. obsolete To mimic; to counterfeit.
  5. v. obsolete To fill with lies.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. represent falsely
  2. v. be in contradiction with

Etymologies

  1. 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)
  2. 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

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Lists

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Comments

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  • 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

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‘belie’ has been looked up 8441 times, loved by 18 people, added to 115 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 7.