lying 1 of 4

lying

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noun

lying

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verb (1)

present participle of lie

lying

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verb (2)

present participle of lie
1
as in leading
to be positioned along a certain course or in a certain direction the train tracks lie just over that hill

Synonyms & Similar Words

2
3
as in hiding
to remain out of sight paparazzi were lying in wait outside the restaurant, a well-known celebrity hangout

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of lying
Adjective
He was found dead lying face up on his hotel bed with no signs of trauma, according to a Monday report from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. Kenan Draughorne, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2022
Noun
Lowest lying yards along Blue Creek are flooded. Anna Skinner, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Oct. 2025 Crawford said the lying in wait allegations could not be proved because his client was just standing by a gate when the attack happened. City News Service, Oc Register, 15 Oct. 2025 Stop the madness, stop the lying, and just be free. Mekishana Pierre, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Oct. 2025 Stop the madness, stop the lying and just be free. Brenton Blanchet, PEOPLE, 10 Oct. 2025 Overstatement, gross exaggeration, outright lying. Literary Hub, 7 Oct. 2025 When accusations of lying are going both ways, who gets to control the truth? The New Yorker, New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2025 But lying becomes second nature. Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 2 Sep. 2025 At the same time, lying seems to be a particularly tough problem for AI companies to completely solve, at least in the short term. PC Magazine, 29 Aug. 2025
Verb
The defining image of this exact fixture back in February was Szoboszlai lying face-down on the pitch at full time of Liverpool’s 2-0 away win, utterly spent. Andy Jones, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2025 But in 1991, federal agents charged him with lying and continuing to traffic drugs. Miami Herald, 7 Nov. 2025 A day later, 38-year-old Iris Ross was discovered lying outside on the front patio of her ex's Phoenix apartment after being shot. Becca Longmire, PEOPLE, 6 Nov. 2025 The attorneys also describe Juarez as lying that a shooting at his home in June 2024 — less than two weeks before the raids — had been an assassination attempt. Shomik Mukherjee, Mercury News, 6 Nov. 2025 Ciattarelli said Sherrill was lying and threatened to sue her for defamation. Joe Hernandez, NPR, 5 Nov. 2025 But everyone is lying and there are secrets to be uncovered. Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 4 Nov. 2025 Davis, bringing up that moment, asked Cuomo if all of the women who made the accusations were lying. Oren Oppenheim, ABC News, 30 Oct. 2025 Polec was reportedly assaulted with baseball bats and other weapons while lying defenseless on the steps of Saint Cecilia's Church, according to officials. Alexandra Koch, FOXNews.com, 29 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lying
Adjective
  • Matthiessen, not without reason, portrays the Bureau as paranoid, dishonest, and in league with corporate interests.
    Maggie Doherty, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
  • For that incredibly dishonest assessment that actually did a disservice to the country, Obama is held up to widespread praise by Democrats and others, even winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
    Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 11 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Don’t get too comfortable because the toxicity, lies and deception are about to return.
    Carly Thomas, HollywoodReporter, 11 Nov. 2025
  • The 5-foot-11, 154-pound Imai throws a mix of six pitches, but is more than simply a deception specialist.
    Jon Vankin, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • There is no indication that the misleading edit was politically motivated.
    Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Even if its 46 shots Sunday were a bit misleading, with many coming from manageable angles, that kind of volume isn’t possible without controlling possession.
    Max Bultman, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • This week, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Pam Bondi gave a master class in obfuscation, prevarication, and pettiness.
    John Ficarra, Air Mail, 11 Oct. 2025
  • There was no picture, there was no drawing, there has been so many lies, so much prevarication, so much cover up.
    John Parkinson, ABC News, 10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Patients who received the erroneous letters can contact MaineHealth’s patient relations department to confirm their status — alive and well — and ensure their records remain accurate.
    Jasmine Baehr, FOXNews.com, 6 Nov. 2025
  • So that's completely erroneous.
    ABC News, ABC News, 2 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • The first accounts of cheating and payoffs during exam week surfaced—a blow to the belief in fairness on which the whole system of guilds depended.
    George Packer, The Atlantic, 6 Nov. 2025
  • As the film begins, a mother (Kim Hye-soo) and her young daughter (Park Yeon-ah) have just moved into a new apartment after Mom caught Dad cheating.
    Katie Rife, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • President Trump is mendacious, vengeful, and unscrupulous.
    Krista Kafer, Denver Post, 20 Oct. 2025
  • At Comedy Central, Colbert rose to prominence playing a slightly exaggerated version of Bill O’Reilly and other unapologetically mendacious Fox News pundits from the George W. Bush years.
    Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 18 July 2025
Noun
  • Waiting for him there, fuming from a bench with an unobstructed view of the North Portico, is the living manifestation of dishonesty.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 6 Nov. 2025
  • The problem isn’t that my girlfriend wouldn’t get to go, but the disrespect and dishonesty of uninviting her out of the blue and trying to cover it up as being a genuine mistake.
    Jordan Greene, PEOPLE, 14 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Lying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lying. Accessed 16 Nov. 2025.

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