Katherine T. KinkeadAmerican Guide Series: Pennsylvania
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"What is a lie?" asks Lord Byron in Don Juan. He then answers himself: "'Tis but the truth in masquerade...." The history of belie illustrates a certain connection between lying and masquerading as something other than one is. In Old English, belie meant "to deceive by lying," but in time, it came to mean "to tell lies about," taking on a sense similar to that of the modern word slander. Eventually, its meaning softened, shifting from an act of outright lying to one of mere misrepresentation; by the 1700s, the word was being used in the sense "to disguise or conceal." Nowadays, belie is typically applied when someone or something gives an impression that is in disagreement with the facts, rather than in contexts where there is an intentional untruth. A happy face put on to set others at ease, for example, may belie an internal disgruntlement.
Examples of belie in a Sentence
Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 20 June 2025
Further, many individual small sums of $50, $75 and $100 were spent on phone banks for Aguirre, and again, those numbers likely belie the breadth of the effort.
—Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 June 2025
The peaceful river scene belies the stress that the community has suffered.
—Diane Cole, NPR, 19 June 2025
Like Francona, Miley’s aw-shucks facade belies an understanding of the game that borders on genius.
—C. Trent Rosecrans, New York Times, 16 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for belie
Cite this Entry
“Belie.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belie. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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belie
verb
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