Definition of belie
belied
;belying
transitive verb
1a : to give a false impression of Her gentleness belies her strength.b : to present an appearance not in agreement with His manner and appearance belie his age.
2a : to show (something) to be false or wrong The evidence belies their claims of innocence.b : to run counter to : contradict … appeared to belie all the rosy things I had heard about it. — Katherine T. Kinkead
3 : disguise 3 An air of rural charm … belies the community's industrial activity. — American Guide Series: Pennsylvania
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Examples of belie in a Sentence
a tree whose delicate beauty belies its real toughness
Their actions belie their claim to be innocent.
Recent Examples of belie from the Web
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That's Fiasco for you, though — making a memorable theatrical racket that belies the compact size of the resourceful company’s artistic paddle …
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James has handled his transition with grace and a maturity that belies his years.
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The small, yellow, wooden structure has the quality of a medieval icon, belying its repressive history.
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Macron's relatively simple greeting of Putin belies a complicated relationship between the two leaders.
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At his debut on the world stage, the new French president revealed a steeliness that belies his 39 years.
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It's all served in a chic, sophisticated dining room that belies its strip mall location on Center Ridge Road.
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As van Herpen explored Dallas in her hours off from museum duties, the easygoing nature of the soft-spoken designer, who once aspired to be a dancer, belied her clearly voracious appetite for inspiration.
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The rest of the mule is based on the evolutionary ’08 XJ (pictured above for reference) and belies the changes to come.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'belie'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
What is a lie? asked Lord Byron in Don Juan. He then answered himself: "'Tis but the truth in masquerade. . . ." The history of "belie" illustrates a certain connection between lying and disguising. In its earliest known use, around A.D. 1000, belie meant "to deceive by lying." By the 1200s, it was being used to mean "to tell lies about," using a sense similar to that of the modern word slander. Over time its meaning softened, shifting from an act of outright lying to one of mere misrepresentation, and by the early 1700s, the word was being used in the sense "to disguise or conceal." Nowadays, "belie" suggests giving an impression at variance with the facts rather than telling an intentional untruth.
BELIE Defined for English Language Learners
belie
playDefinition of belie for English Language Learners
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: to give a false idea of (something)
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: to show (something) to be false or wrong
BELIE Defined for Kids
belie
playDefinition of belie for Students
belied
;belying
1 : to give a false idea of Her voice was strong and even, belying her eighty-two years. — Kevin Henkes, Olive's Ocean
2 : to show to be false Their actions belie their claim of innocence.
Learn More about belie
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See words that rhyme with belie Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for belie Spanish Central: Translation of belie Nglish: Translation of belie for Spanish speakers
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