lie with

verb

lay with; lain with; lying with; lies with

1

—used to say who has the blame or responsibility for something

Responsibility for the accident lies with the company.

2

literary : to have sex with (someone)

when he first lay with her

Examples of lie with in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Panduru also pointed out that the responsibility to stay fresh lies with each individual, since shooting is about living the moment with everyone on set. — Jenny S. Li, Variety, 4 Nov. 2026

Ultimately, Swanson said, the decision lies with the California Department of Public Health. — Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2026

Part of the confusion lies with the fact that the midterm elections could change the makeup of Congress, which could lead to new policies or pauses. — Anil Oza, STAT, 23 Oct. 2026

Hope would lie with a change at the White House in 2028 — there was already plenty of regulatory heat on Musk under Joe Biden, one reason Musk went all in on Trump in the first place. — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 22 Oct. 2026

Video

Lay vs. Lie

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Ask the Editor. I'm Emily Brewster, an associate editor at Merriam-Webster.
 
Sometimes we tell you that certain grammar rules are little more than the Latin-inspired whims of long dead grammarians. But not so with the verbs lay and lie. This pair is a doozy that's been tripping up English speakers for 700 years.
 
Lay's most common meaning is, to place something or someone down in a flat position. Lie's corresponding meaning is, to be in a flat position on a surface.
 
Lay is transitive. It requires that the verb have an object. There has to be a thing or a person being placed.
- Lay it down.
 
Lie, on the other hand, is intransitive. It's for something or someone moving on their own. Or something or someone that's already in position.
- You can lie down there.
- You can lie there all day.
 
That's tricky enough, but it gets worse when we start using the words beyond the now.
 
Here's lay in context in tenses that show its principal forms.
- I was told to lay the book down.
- I laid it down as I have laid other books down.
- I am laying more books down now.
 
And here's lie.
- I was told to lie down.
- I lay down.
- I have lain here since.
- I'm still lying here.
 
Did you catch that?
 
For lay, we have lay, laid, have laid, laying.
For lie, we have lie, lay, have lain, lying.
 
And then there's the unrelated verb meaning to tell an untruth.
That lie goes, lie, lied, have lied, lying.
 
What fascinates me about all this is that the language has continued to carry a torch for the distinction for 700 years. Enough writers and editors get these right generation after generation, that there continues to be a right and a wrong. It's not because dead grammarians said so, but because people like you get it right, often enough anyway, that it's still how the land lays.
 
I mean lies.
 
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