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
In September, Cabrera brought up the allegations again during another meeting and accused Fernandez of lying. Miami Herald, 30 Oct. 2025 In a police report, Turnage claimed there was no evidence Henry abused Taylor and accused Taylor of lying during a criminal investigation. Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 30 Oct. 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 Known as cane cutters, cane jakes, or more commonly swamp rabbits, this species is found in the low lying areas in Indiana’s southern hardwood forests where tall reed-like grasses grow that resemble bamboo or sugar cane. Karl Schneider, IndyStar, 29 Oct. 2025 Found lying under a pine tree in her backyard the next morning, she had been repeatedly bludgeoned with a golf club — and stabbed with a broken piece of it — after a night out looking to cause some pre-Halloween mischief with friends who lived in the neighborhood. Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 28 Oct. 2025 The video shows the two pups lying side by side, with Mickelson resting his head on Piggy’s body. Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Oct. 2025 The Dutchman, regarded as one of the best deep-lying midfielders in Europe when he was signed from Feyenoord two summers ago, has been turned into a right-back by Hurzeler. Andy Naylor, New York Times, 26 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
  • Always one step ahead of the police, Fantomas is a master of deception and chaos.
    Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 4 Nov. 2025
  • The three-part docuseries that premiered this week chronicles how Rasmussen discovered Johnson’s deceptions and finally left him, only to be harassed by her ex after their divorce.
    Addie Morfoot, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • This, in turn, creates a feedback loop where accurate, trustworthy information is rewarded while low-quality or potentially misleading content loses influence.
    Matthew Kayser, USA Today, 4 Nov. 2025
  • The idea is to prevent ads containing false or misleading material that can potentially hurt someone.
    Sydney Lupkin, NPR, 4 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
  • So that's completely erroneous.
    ABC News, ABC News, 2 Nov. 2025
  • Grokipedia also contains some erroneous statements.
    Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 28 Oct. 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 9 Nov. 2025.

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