lie behind

phrasal verb

lay behind; lain behind; lying behind; lies behind

: to be the cause of (something)

Greed lies behind the higher prices.

Examples of lie behind in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But no major study digs into the actual rate of side effects among females, or what might lie behind such differences. —

Maggie Fox, TIME, 5 Apr. 2024 Tracy Jackson is alleged to have killed Marvin Spence, 36, whose body was found around 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 26 lying behind a car parked on Royal Oak Drive west of state Route 125, said Lt. Jud Campbell in a news release. —

Caleb Lunetta, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Jan. 2024 That left everyone scratching their heads a bit, until Kish explained that there’s a picturesque peninsula three hours north called Door County. Door County is known for its cherry production, and while those cherries would be the star of each dish, a mystery lay behind those doors. —

Rachel Bernhard, Journal Sentinel, 3 Apr. 2024 Ensuring support School leaders like Eddie Rangel, executive director at the Adelante School at Emma Donnan, an IPS innovation charter school, say complex reasons may lie behind students failing to reach proficiency in reading. —

Rachel Fradette, The Indianapolis Star, 24 Jan. 2024 Thankfully McGee realizes the answer actually lies behind the team, and one of the framed photos swings open to reveal Ducky’s junk drawer. —

Sara Netzley, EW.com, 20 Feb. 2024 This was the strategy that lay behind the Nixon Shock of 15 August 1971. —

Yanis Varoufakis, Fortune, 11 Feb. 2024 While the phrase is still outside the political mainstream, the idea lies behind the land acknowledgments — which recognize and name the Indigenous inhabitants of places — that have become commonplace across universities and cultural institutions. —

Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times, 22 Jan. 2024 Whatever lies behind the Germany-France-Italy U-turn, the European Parliament is not impressed. —

David Meyer, Fortune, 27 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lie behind.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.