lie

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intr.v., lay (), lain (lān), ly·ing ('ĭng), lies.
  1. To be or place oneself at rest in a flat, horizontal, or recumbent position; recline: He lay under a tree to sleep.
  2. To be placed on or supported by a surface that is usually horizontal: Dirty dishes lay on the table. See Usage Note at lay1.
  3. To be or remain in a specified condition: The dust has lain undisturbed for years. He lay sick in bed.
    1. To exist; reside: Our sympathies lie with the plaintiff.
    2. To consist or have as a basis. Often used with in: The strength of his performance lies in his training.
  4. To occupy a position or place: The lake lies beyond this hill.
  5. To extend: Our land lies between these trees and the river.
  6. To be buried in a specified place.
  7. Law. To be admissible or maintainable.
  8. Archaic. To stay for a night or short while.
n.
  1. The manner or position in which something is situated.
  2. A haunt or hiding place of an animal.
  3. Sports. The position of a golf ball that has come to a stop.
phrasal verbs:

lie down

  1. To do little or nothing: He's lying down on the job.
lie in
  1. To be in confinement for childbirth.
lie to Nautical.
  1. To remain stationary while facing the wind.
lie with
  1. To be decided by, dependent on, or up to: The choice lies with you.
  2. Archaic. To have sexual intercourse with.

idiom:

lie (or lay) low

  1. To keep oneself or one's plans hidden.
  2. To bide one's time but remain ready for action.

[Middle English lien, from Old English licgan.]


lie2 () pronunciation
n.
  1. A false statement deliberately presented as being true; a falsehood.
  2. Something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.

v., lied, ly·ing ('ĭng), lies.

v.intr.
  1. To present false information with the intention of deceiving.
  2. To convey a false image or impression: Appearances often lie.
v.tr.
To cause to be in a specific condition or affect in a specific way by telling falsehoods: You have lied yourself into trouble.

idiom:

lie through one's teeth

  1. To lie outrageously or brazenly.

[Middle English, from Old English lyge.]

SYNONYMS   lie, equivocate, fib, palter, prevaricate. These verbs mean to evade or depart from the truth: a witness who lied under oath; didn't equivocate about her real purpose; fibbed to escape being scolded; paltering with an irate customer; didn't prevaricate but answered honestly.



= tell an untruth, has inflected forms lies, lied, lying.

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verb

  1. To be or place oneself in a prostrate or recumbent position. recline, repose, stretch (out). See horizontal/vertical/change of position.
  2. To take repose, as by sleeping or lying quietly. recline, repose, rest1, stretch (out). See continue/stop/pause.
  3. To have an inherent basis: consist, dwell, exist, inhere, repose, reside, rest1. See start/end.
lie2

noun

    An untrue declaration: canard, cock-and-bull story, falsehood, falsity, fib, fiction, inveracity, misrepresentation, misstatement, prevarication, story, tale, untruth. Informal fish story, tall tale. Slang whopper. See true/false.

verb

    To make untrue declarations: falsify, fib, forswear, prevaricate. Law perjure. See true/false.


n

Definition: untruth
Antonyms: fact, honesty, truth

v

Definition: be prostrate, flat
Antonyms: be upright, stand, straighten

v

Definition: tell an untruth
Antonyms: be honest, tell truth

A lie, the dissimulation or willful deformation of the contents of a thought that the subject deems to be true, can be practiced only either vis-à-vis another person or by means of a split in the subject—in which case the subject lies "to him- or herself." A lie implies the intent to deceive and supports self-interest. The psychoanalytic approach to lying introduces the dimension of the unconscious.

The earliest psychoanalytic consideration of lies is found in Freud's "Project for a Scientific Psychology" (1950c [1895]), where he envisioned lies solely in the context of the psychiatric definition of hysteria as a form of simulation, although he rejected this perspective. While he acknowledged the existence of a tendency toward simulation and lying in hysterics, he attributed it to the fact that the patient "wishes to be ill," (p. 249), itself the result of patients' need to convince themselves and those around them of the reality of their suffering.

In "Project for a Scientific Psychology," the πρωτoυ πσευδoς (proton-pseudos) is usually translated as "first hysterical lie" although it in fact involves an error or mistaken connection rather than an intentional dissimulation or distortion. The well-known example of Emma shows that the "error" had to do with the fact that she related her attack of agoraphobia to the shop-assistants' ridicule of her clothes when she was thirteen, whereas the determining event, although its felt effects were deferred, was the memory-trace of a shopkeeper's pedophilic assault on her when she was a child. The mistaken connection resulted from the repression of a childhood memory that was not available to her at the time of the scene when she was thirteen ("Hysterics suffer mainly from reminiscences" [p. 7]).

In "Two Lies Told by Children" (1913g) Freud emphasized that lies between parents and children are "natural." In "On the Origin of the 'Influencing Machine' in Schizophrenia" (1919/1991), Viktor Tausk wrote: "children learn to lie from parents and upbringers, who by misrepresentations and unkept promises make the child obey and teach him to disguise his true purposes" (pp. 214-215 n4). The aim of Freud's article of 1913 was thus to show the existence of unconscious motivations in certain childhood lies that "occur under the influence of excessive feelings of love" (p. 305).

Such motivations do not involve the interests of the ego but instead correspond to an instinctual impulse that cannot be admitted, not because of the strong feelings of shame or unconscious guilt that are attached to it, but because it is unconscious. In the two cases evoked by Freud, incestuous love is behind the error and, secondarily, behind the lie that covers it up. The error itself could have been admitted as a fact, and if it is not acknowledged, this is because of the unconscious content it manifests. The "impossibility" of confession opens the way for reconstitution through deferred action, based on associations produced during the analysis, of the motivations that made the error impossible to confess.

This view leads to seeing the moral fault that the lie represents as a consequence of neurosis. A strictly moral understanding of lies is thus transformed by the psychoanalytical approach into an interrogation of the desire for falsehood. Such a desire, or even need, is incompatible with psychoanalysis, which requires, of analyst and patient alike, not that they tell the truth, but that they seek it.

According to Sándor Ferenczi (1912/1968), the difference between suggestion and psychoanalysis is that the former maintains disguise and repression owing to its basis in the authority of the therapist, where the latter "combats the 'vital lie' wherever it is found . . . its final goal [being] to let light penetrate into human consciousness as far as the most hidden wellsprings of motivations for actions." Ferenczi, too, stigmatized the pedagogy of his time, which imposed upon children the repression of emotions and ideas. In "Psychanalyse et pédagogie" (1908; [Psychoanalysis and education, 1949]), he wrote: "The closest thing to it is lying . . . current pedagogy forces the child to lie to himself, to deny what he knows and what he thinks." Echoed here is Freud's concern about telling children the truth about sexuality; lying, in this context, appears first and foremost as an adult form of hypocrisy, with children's lies being a response to it.

Karl Abraham (1925/1927) studied from a psychoanalytic viewpoint the case of a captain of industry, analyzing his compulsion to deceive others as a two-phase process in which he first showed himself to be lovable because he had not been loved by his parents, then did his best to disappoint those whom he had duped in order to take revenge against them. In "Über einen Typus der Pseudoaffektifivität ('Als ob')" (1934) Helen Deutsch introduced the important notion of the "as if" personality, which is not a utilitarian lie told on a given occasion, but rather protects the "true Self" with a "false Self" (Donald Winnicott). Mythomania can also be situated within this framework of a narcissistic pathology in which lies are addressed both to others and to the self. Moreover, in "The Antisocial Tendency" (1956/1984) Winnicott situated theft associated with lying at the heart of antisocial tendencies in children and adolescents, but also connected this to incontinence and anything that makes a mess. In this context, this would focus on ease and opportunity to the classic moral understanding of an aggressive will to deceive. Lying, like gluttony and theft, originates in frustration.

The psychoanalytic view of lying is thus very broad, because it includes both the dimension of the false, ranging from social adaptation to pathologies of identity, and that of willful deceit, for which explanations relating to frustration or repressed love can be found.

Bibliography

Abraham, Karl. (1927). The influence of oral erotism on character-formation. In Selected papers of Karl Abraham (Douglas Bryan and Alix Strachey, Trans., pp. 393-406). London: Hogarth and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. (Original work published 1925)

Deutsch, Helene.Über einen Typus der Pseudoaffektifivität ("Als ob"). Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, 20.

Ferenczi, Sándor. (1949). Psychoanalysis and education. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 30, 220-224. (Original work published 1920) ——. (1968). Suggestion et psychanalyse. In his Psychanalyse I, Œuvres complètes (Volume 1: 1908-1912; pp. 233-242). Paris: Payot. (Original work published 1912)

Freud, Sigmund. (1913g). Two lies told by children. SE, 12: 303-309.

——. (1950c [1895]). Project for a scientific psychology. SE, 1: 281-387.

Tausk, Viktor. (1991). On the origin of the "influencing machine" in schizophrenia. In Paul Roazen (Ed.), Sexuality, War, and Schizophrenia: Collected Psychoanalytic Papers (Eric Mosbacher et. al., Trans.; pp. 185-220). New Brunswick: Transaction. (Original work published 1919).

Winnicott, Donald W. (1984). The antisocial tendency. In his Deprivation and deliquency. London: Tavistock. (Original work published 1956)

—SOPHIE DE MIJOLLA-MELLOR

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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: v. - To tell a falsehood; v. - to recline.

pronunciation Half a truth is often a great lie. — Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

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as in: lie down
sign description: Two fingers of the right hand are flipped over and lain down on the palm of the opposite hand.




Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'lie'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to lie, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Lie.

To lie is to hold something which one knows is not the whole truth to be the whole truth, intentionally.

In some situations, including perjury and some fraud, lying may be punishable by law.

In the story of Pinocchio, his nose grows longer when he tells a lie.

This article is about the second and third senses of the English word lie given in Wiktionary (see the entry on Wiktionary for the etymology, etc.).

Classification

Bad faith

As defined by Sartre, "bad faith" is lying to oneself. Specifically, it is failing to acknowledge one's own ability to act and determine one's possibilities, falling back on the determinations of the various historical and current totalisations which have produced one as if they relieved one of one's freedom to do so.

Big Lie

A lie which attempts to trick the victim into believing something major which will likely be contradicted by some information the victim already possesses, or by their common sense. When the lie is of sufficient magnitude it may succeed due to the victim's reluctance to believe that an untruth on such a grand scale would indeed be concocted.

Bluffing

To bluff is to pretend to have a capability or intention one does not actually possess. Bluffing is an act of deception that is rarely seen as immoral when it takes place in the context of a game, such as poker, where this kind of deception is consented to in advance by the players. For instance, a gambler who deceives other players into thinking he has different cards to those he really holds, or an athlete who hints he will move left and then dodges right is not considered to be lying (also known as a feint or juke). In these situations, deception is acceptable and is commonly expected as a tactic.

Barefaced lie

A barefaced (or bald-faced) lie is one that is obviously a lie to those hearing it. The phrase comes from 17th-century British usage referring to those without facial hair as being seen as particularly forthright and outwardly honest, and therefore more likely to get away with telling a significant lie. A variation that has been in use almost as long is bold-faced lie, referring to a lie told with a straight and confident face (hence "bold-faced"), usually with the corresponding tone of voice and emphatic body language of one confidently speaking the truth. Bold-faced lie can also refer to misleading or inaccurate newspaper headlines, but this usage appears to be a more recent appropriation of the term.[1]

Butler lie

A term coined by researchers in Cornell University's Social Media Lab that describes small/innate lies which are usually sent electronically, and are used to terminate conversations or to save face. For example sending an SMS to someone reading "I have to go, the waiter is here" when you are not at a restaurant is an example of a butler lie. [2]

Contextual lie

One can state part of the truth out of context, knowing that without complete information, it gives a false impression. Likewise, one can actually state accurate facts, yet deceive with them. To say "Yeah, that's right, I ate all the white chocolate, by myself," utilizing a sarcasm that is a form of assertion by ridiculing the fact(s) implying the liar believes it to be preposterous.

Economy with the truth

Economy with the truth is popularly used as a euphemism for deceit, whether by volunteering false information (i.e., lying) or by deliberately holding back relevant facts. More literally, it describes a careful use of facts so as not to reveal too much information, as in speaking carefully.

Emergency lie

An emergency lie is a strategic lie told when the truth may not be told because, for example, harm to a third party would result. For example, a neighbor might lie to an enraged wife about the whereabouts of her unfaithful husband, because said wife might reasonably be expected to inflict physical injury should she encounter her husband in person. Alternatively, an emergency lie could denote a (temporary) lie told to a second person because of the presence of a third.

Exaggeration

An exaggeration (or hyperbole) occurs when the most fundamental aspects of a statement are true, but only to a certain degree. It is also seen as "stretching the truth" or making something appear more powerful, meaningful, or real than it actually is.

Fabrication

A fabrication is a lie told when someone submits a statement as truth, without knowing for certain whether or not it actually is true. Although the statement may be possible or plausible, it is not based on fact. Rather, it is something made up, or it is a misrepresentation of the truth. Examples of fabrication: A person giving directions to a tourist when the person doesn't actually know the directions. Often propaganda is fabrication.

Fib

A fib is a lie told with no malicious intent and little consequence. Unlike a White lie, fibs rarely include those lies or omissions that are meant to do good.

Haystack answer

A haystack answer (or statement) is a volume of false or irrelevant information, possibly containing a true fact (the needle in the "haystack"). Even if the truth is included, it is difficult or impossible to detect and identify. In this way, the legendary Leprechaun hid his pot of gold,[3] even after it had been found.

Jocose lie

Jocose (cf. jocular) lies are lies meant in jest, intended to be understood as such by all present parties. Teasing and irony are examples. A more elaborate instance is seen in some storytelling traditions, where the humor comes from the storyteller's insistence that the story is the absolute truth, despite all evidence to the contrary (i.e., tall tale). There is debate about whether these are "real" lies, and different philosophers hold different views (see below).

The Crick Crack Club in London organize a yearly "Grand Lying Contest" with the winner being awarded the coveted "Hodja Cup" (named for the Mulla Nasreddin: "The truth is something I have never spoken."). The winner in 2010 was Hugh Lupton.

Lie-to-children

A lie-to-children is a lie, often a platitude, which may use euphemism(s), which is told to make an adult subject acceptable to children. Common examples include "The stork brought you" (in reference to childbirth) and the existence of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny.

Lying by omission

Also known as a continuing misrepresentation, a lie by omission occurs when an important fact is left out in order to foster a misconception. Lying by omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions. When the seller of a car declares it has been serviced regularly but does not tell that a fault was reported at the last service, the seller lies by omission.

Lying in trade

The seller of a product or service may advertise untrue facts about the product or service in order to gain sales, especially by competitive advantage. Many countries and states have enacted consumer protection laws intended to combat such fraud. An example is the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act that holds a seller liable for omission of any material fact that the buyer relies upon.

Lying through your teeth

When one lies face-to-face with the intended recipient. This also may be an expression describing the act of lying with a smile or other patronizing tone or body language.

Minimisation

Minimisation is the opposite of exaggeration. It is a type of deception[4] involving denial coupled with rationalisation in situations where complete denial is implausible.

Misleading and dissembling

A misleading statement is one where there is no outright lie, but still retains the purpose of getting someone to believe in an untruth. "Dissembling" likewise describes the presentation of facts in a way that is literally true, but intentionally misleading.

Noble lie

A noble lie is one that would normally cause discord if uncovered, but offers some benefit to the liar and assists in an orderly society, therefore, potentially beneficial to others. It is often told to maintain law, order and safety.

Perjury

Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law, or in any of various sworn statements in writing. Perjury is a crime, because the witness has sworn to tell the truth and, for the credibility of the court to remain intact, witness testimony must be relied on as truthful.

Polite lie

A polite lie is a lie that a politeness standard requires, and which is usually known to be untrue by both parties. Whether such lies are acceptable is heavily dependent on culture. A common polite lie in international etiquette is to decline invitations because of "scheduling difficulties".

Puffery

Puffery is an exaggerated claim typically found in advertising and publicity announcements, such as "the highest quality at the lowest price," or "always votes in the best interest of all the people." Such statements are unlikely to be true - but cannot be proven false and so do not violate trade laws, especially as the consumer is expected to be able to tell that it is not the absolute truth.

View from Nowhere

The View from Nowhere refers to journalism and analysis that misinform the audience by creating the impression that opposing parties to an issue have equal correctness and validity, even when the truth of their claims are mutually exclusive.

White lie

White lies are minor lies which could be considered to be harmless, or even beneficial, in the long term. White lies are also considered to be used for greater good. A common version of a white lie is to tell only part of the truth, therefore not be suspected of lying, yet also conceal something else, in order to avoid awkward questions.

Consequences

Once a lie has been told, there can be two alternative consequences: it may be discovered or remain undiscovered.

Under some circumstances, discovery of a lie may discredit other statements by the same speaker and can lead to social or legal sanctions against the speaker, such as ostracizing or conviction for perjury. When a lie is discovered, the state of mind and behavior of the lie teller (liar) is no longer predictable.

The discoverer of a lie may also be convinced or coerced to collaborate with the liar, becoming part of a conspiracy. They may actively propagate the lie to other parties, actively prevent the lie's discovery by other parties, or simply omit publicizing the lie (a secondary lie of omission).

Detection

Some people may be better "lie detectors" than others, better able to distinguish a lie by facial expression, cadence of speech, certain movements, and other methods. According to David J. Lieberman, PhD, in Never Be Lied to Again: How to Get the Truth in Five Minutes or Less in Any Conversation or Situation, these methods can be learned. Some methods of questioning may be more likely to elicit the truth, for instance: "When was the last time you smoked marijuana?" (a leading question) is more likely to get a truthful answer than "Do you smoke pot?" Asking the question most likely to get the information you want is a skill and can be learned. Avoiding vague questioning will help avoid lies of omission or vagueness.

The question of whether lies can reliably be detected through nonverbal means is a subject of some controversy.

  • Polygraph "lie detector" machines measure the physiological stress a subject endures in a number of measures while he/she gives statements or answers questions. Spikes in stress are purported to indicate lying. The accuracy of this method is widely disputed, and in several well-known cases it was proven to have been deceived. Nonetheless, it remains in use in many areas, primarily as a method for eliciting confessions or employment screening. Polygraph results are not admissible as court evidence and are generally perceived to be pseudoscience.
  • Various truth drugs have been proposed and used anecdotally, though none are considered very reliable. The CIA attempted to find a universal "truth serum" in the MK-ULTRA project, but it was an overall failure.[citation needed]
  • A recent study found that lying takes longer than telling the truth, and thus the time to answer a question may be used as a method of lie detection. However, it has also been shown that instant-answers can be proof of a prepared lie. The only compromise is to try to surprise the victim and find a midway answer, not too quick, nor too long.[5]

Dr. Paul Ekman and Dr. Maureen O'Sullivan spent several decades studying people's ability to spot deception in a study called the Wizards Project. They studied police officers, psychologists, judges, lawyers, the CIA, FBI and the Secret Service. After studying nearly 20,000 people, they identified just over 50 people who can spot deception with great accuracy. They call these people "Truth Wizards."

Dr. Freitas-Magalhaes developed the ForensicPsy and the Psy7Faces to read lies by facial expressions.

Ethics

Aristotle believed no general rule on lying was possible, because anybody who advocated lying could never be believed, he said.[6] The philosophers St. Augustine, as well as St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant, condemned all lying. However, Thomas Aquinas also had an argument for lying. According to all three, there are no circumstances in which one may lie. One must be murdered, suffer torture, or endure any other hardship, rather than lie, even if the only way to protect oneself is to lie. Each of these philosophers gave several arguments against lying, all compatible with each other. Among the more important arguments are:

  1. Lying is a perversion of the natural faculty of speech, the natural end of which is to communicate the thoughts of the speaker.
  2. When one lies, one undermines trust in society.

Meanwhile, Utilitarian philosophers have supported lies which achieve good outcomes—white lies. In his 2008 book How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time, Iain King suggested a credible rule on lying was possible, and defined it as: "Deceive only if you can change behaviour in a way worth more than the trust you would lose, were the deception discovered (whether the deception actually is exposed or not)."[7]

In Human, All Too Human, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche suggested that those who refrain from lying may do so only because of the difficulty involved in maintaining the lie. This is consistent with his general philosophy that divides (or ranks) people according to strength and ability; thus, some people tell the truth only out of weakness.

In other species

The capacity to lie has also been claimed to be possessed by non-humans in language studies with great apes. Even Koko, the gorilla made famous for learning American Sign Language has been caught red-handed. After tearing a steel sink from the wall in the middle of a tantrum, she signed to her handlers that a cat did it, while she pointed to her kitten. It is unclear if this was a joke or a genuine attempt at blaming her tiny pet. Deceptive body language, such as feints that mislead as to the intended direction of attack or flight, is observed in many species including wolves. A mother bird deceives when it pretends to have a broken wing to divert the attention of a perceived predator—including unwitting humans—from the eggs in its nest to itself, most notably the killdeer[8].

In culture

Close-up of the bronze statue depicting a walking Pinocchio, named Walking to Borås by Jim Dine

Cultural references

  • Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio was a wooden puppet often led into trouble by his propensity to lie. His nose grew with every lie; hence, long noses have become a caricature of liars.
  • A famous anecdote by Parson Weems claims that George Washington once cut a tree over when he was a small child. His father asked him who cut the tree and Washington confessed his crime with the words: "I'm sorry, father, I cannot tell a lie." The anecdote has been proven to be a completely fictional story.
  • The Boy Who Cried Wolf, a fable attributed to Aesop about a boy who continually lies a wolf is coming. When a wolf does appear nobody believes him anymore.
  • The Sky Is Falling, similar to The Boy Who Cried Wolf, is the story of Chicken Little, an alarmist little chicken who claims that the sky is falling. This differs from The Boy Who Cried Wolf in that Chicken Little's fabrication is the result of a misinterpretation of the facts which he believes to be true.
  • What's My Line? was the originator of a genre of game shows with 3 contestants claiming to be a person only one of them is.

The cliché "All is fair in love and war"[9][10] finds justification for lies used to gain advantage in these situations. Sun Tzu declared that "All warfare is based on deception." Machiavelli advised in The Prince "never to attempt to win by force what can be won by deception," and Thomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan: "In war, force and fraud are the two cardinal virtues."

Fiction

  • In the film Big Fat Liar, the story producer Marty Wolf (a notorious and proud liar himself) steals from student Jason Shepard, tells of a character whose lies become out of control to the point where each lie he tells causes him to grow in size.
  • In the film Liar Liar, the lawyer Fletcher Reede (Jim Carrey) cannot lie for 24 hours, due to a wish of his son that magically came true.
  • In the 1985 Max Headroom, the title character comments that one can always tell when a politician lies because "their lips move." The joke has been widely repeated and rephrased.
  • Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space! was mostly about lying and telling the truth.
  • Lie to Me, a TV series based on behavior analysts who read lies through facial expressions and body language. The protagonists, Dr. Cal Lightman and Dr. Gillian Foster are based on the above-mentioned Dr. Paul Ekman and Dr. Maureen O'Sullivan.
  • The Invention of Lying is a 2009 movie depicting the fictitious invention of the first lie, starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, and Tina Fey.
  • The Adventures of Baron Munchausen tell the story about an 18th-century baron who tells outrageous, unbelievable stories, which he claims are all true.
  • Kamen Rider Den-O has Urataros who claims that "one lie is better than ten thousand truths."

Literature

Sir Walter Scott's famous couplet "Oh, what a tangled web we weave / When first we practice to deceive!" describes the often difficult procedure of covering up a lie so that it is not detected in the future.

Paradoxes

Within any scenario where only "yes" or "no" answers are accepted, a person who we know is consistently lying would "paradoxically" be a source of truth if "yes" is sometimes the correct answer. There are many such paradoxes, the most famous being known as the liar paradox, commonly expressed as "This sentence is a lie," or "This sentence is false." The so-called Epimenides paradox ("All Cretans are liars," as stated by Epimenides the Cretan) is a forerunner of this, though its status as a paradox is disputed. A class of related logic puzzles are known as knights and knaves, in which the goal is to determine who of a group of people is lying and who is telling the truth.

Psychology

The capacity to lie is noted early and nearly universally in human development. Social psychology and developmental psychology are concerned with the theory of mind, which people employ to simulate another's reaction to their story and determine if a lie will be believable. The most commonly cited milestone, what is known as Machiavellian intelligence, is at the age of about four and a half years, when children begin to be able to lie convincingly. Before this, they seem simply unable to comprehend why others don't see the same view of events that they do—and seem to assume that there is only one point of view, which is their own.

Young children learn from experience that stating an untruth can avoid punishment for misdeeds, before they develop the theory of mind necessary to understand why it works. In this stage of development, children will sometimes tell outrageous and unbelievable lies, because they lack the conceptual framework to judge whether a statement is believable, or even to understand the concept of believability.

When children first learn how lying works, they lack the moral understanding of when to refrain from doing it. This takes years of watching people tell lies, and the results of these lies, to develop a proper understanding. Propensity to lie varies greatly between children, some doing so habitually and others being habitually honest. Habits in this regard are likely to change in early adulthood.

Those with Parkinson's disease show difficulties in deceiving others, difficulties that link to prefrontal hypometabolism. This suggests a link between the capacity for dishonesty and integrity of prefrontal functioning.[11]

Pseudologia fantastica is a term applied by psychiatrists to the behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.

Mythomania is the condition where there is an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating.[12]

A recent study found that lying takes longer than telling the truth.[5] Or, as Chief Joseph succinctly put it, "It does not require many words to speak the truth." [13]

Religious perspectives

It is alleged[14] that some belief systems may find lying to be justified. Leo Tolstoy is cited[15] as describing religious institutions as "the product of deception [and] lies for a good purpose".

Augustine's taxonomy of lies

Augustine of Hippo wrote two books about lying: On Lying (De Mendacio) and Against Lying (Contra Mendacio).[16][17] He describes each book in his later work, Retractions. Based on the location of De Mendacio in Retractions, it appears to have been written about 395 AD. The first work, On Lying, begins: "Magna quæstio est de Mendacio" ("There is a great question about Lying"). From his text, it can be derived that St. Augustine divided lies into eight categories, listed in order of descending severity:

  • Lies in religious teaching
  • Lies that harm others and help no one
  • Lies that harm others and help someone
  • Lies told for the pleasure of lying
  • Lies told to "please others in smooth discourse"
  • Lies that harm no one and that helps someone materially
  • Lies that harm no one and that helps someone spiritually
  • Lies that harm no one and that protects someone form "bodily defilement"

Augustine wrote that lies told in jest, or by someone who believes or opines the lie to be true are not, in fact, lies.[18]

In the Bible

The Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible both contain statements that God cannot lie (Num. 23:19,[19] Hab. 2:3,[20] Heb. 6:13–18[21]). Nevertheless, there are examples of God deliberately causing enemies to become disorientated and confused, in order to provide victory (2 Thess. 2:11;[22][23] 1 Kings 22:23;[24] Ezek. 14:9[25]):

  • "And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie" (2 Thess. 2:11 NKJV[26])
  • "Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you." (1 Kings 22:23 NKJV[27])
  • "'And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the LORD have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel...'" (Ezek. 14:9 NKJV[28])

Various passages of the Bible feature exchanges that are conditionally critical of lying (Prov. 6:16–19; Ps. 5:6), (Lev. 19:11; Prov. 14:5; Prov. 30:6; Zeph. 3:13), (Isa. 28:15; Dan. 11:27), most famously, in the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not bear false witness" (Ex. 20:2–17; Deut. 5:6–21); Ex. 23:1; Matt. 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20 a specific reference to perjury.

Other passages feature exchanges where lying seems to be seen as acceptable in extreme circumstances involving life and death. However, some Christian philosophers would argue that lying is never acceptable, but that even those who are righteous in God's eyes sin sometimes. Old Testament accounts of lying include:[29]

  • The midwives lied about their inability to kill the Israelite children. (Ex. 1:15-21).
  • Rahab lied to the king of Jericho about hiding the Hebrew spies (Josh. 2:4–5) and was not killed with those who were disobedient because of her faith (Heb. 11:31).
  • Abraham instructed his wife, Sarah, to lie to the Egyptians and say that she is his sister (Gen. 12:10), which led to the Lord punishing the Egyptians (Gen. 12:17–19). Abraham's statement was a lie of the half-truth variety. The Pharaoh's officials wished to learn whether Sarah was available for sexual activity with the Pharaoh -- possibly as a concubine or wife. Abraham's story was literally true -- Sarah was his sister -- but intentionally false because it was designed to misinform the Egyptians to believe Sarah was available, when in fact she was not.

In the New Testament, Jesus refers to the Devil as the father of lies (John 8:44) and Paul commands Christians "Do not lie to one another" (Col. 3:9; cf. Lev. 19:11).

In the Qur'an

The Qur'an says that God (Allah), knows the secrets of all peoples' hearts[30] and when somebody lies.[31] Therefore according to the Qur'an, God cannot be fooled by lies[32] and those who lie not only destroy their souls[31] but the lie will be destroyed by the truth.[33] Liars will be called to account on the Day of Judgment[34] and God will not guide them.[35] In at least three different places, Quran 45:7; 51:10 and 52:11, the Qur'an indicates that liars will suffer.

The following are particularly noted for punishment: idolaters (liars against God),[36] liars who disunite believers,[37] those who lie that all good things are for themselves,[38] hypocrites,[39] those who lie against God when invited to Islam[40] or who treat God's signs as falsehoods.[41]

In Buddhism

Lying is forbidden by the fourth of the Five Precepts, the fundamental ethical training rules for all Buddhists. "For a liar who has violated the one law (of truthfulness) who holds in scorn the hereafter, there is no evil that he cannot do."[42]

In Paganism

In Gestaþáttr, one of the sections within the Eddaic poem Hávamál, Odin states that it is advisable, when dealing with "a false foe who lies," to tell lies oneself.[43]

See also

References

  1. ^ Worldwidewords.org
  2. ^ Butler Lie term coined at Cornell University
  3. ^ The Pot O' Gold and The Leprechaun (Irish Folk Tale)
  4. ^ Guerrero, L., Anderson, P., Afifi, W. (2007). Close Encounters: Communication in Relationships (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
  5. ^ a b Roy Britt, "Lies Take Longer Than Truths," LiveScience.com, January 26, 2009, found at [1]. Accessed November 27, 2011.
  6. ^ How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time, (2008), Iain King, p. 147.
  7. ^ How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time, (2008), Iain King, p. 148.
  8. ^ "Killdeer". Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2011-3-1.
  9. ^ 1620 T. Shelton tr. Cervantes' Don Quixote ii. xxi. Love and warre are all one. It is lawfull to use sleights and stratagems to attaine the wished end.
  10. ^ 1578 Lyly Euphues I. 236 Anye impietie may lawfully be committed in loue, which is lawlesse.
  11. ^ Abe, N.; Fujii, T.; Hirayama, K.; Takeda, A.; Hosokai, Y.; Ishioka, T.; Nishio, Y.; Suzuki, K. et al (2009). "Do parkinsonian patients have trouble telling lies? The neurobiological basis of deceptive behaviour". Brain 132 (5): 1386–1395. doi:10.1093/brain/awp052. PMC 2677797. PMID 19339257. //www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2677797.  edit
  12. ^ Merriam–Webster.com
  13. ^ People.tribe.net
  14. ^ "Lying For a Good Purpose: Book of Mormon Apologetics Over the Years" by Clyde R. Forsberg, Jr., paper at The 2008 International Conference Twenty Years and More: Research into Minority Religions, New Religious Movements and "the New Spirituality" at London School of Economics, 16–20 April 2008
  15. ^ Gordon K. Thomas, "The Book of Mormon in the English Literary Context of 1837," Brigham Young University Studies, Vol. XXCII, No. 1 (Winter 1987), 21
  16. ^ Saint Augustine, translated by Mary Sarah Muldowney [et al.] (2002). Deferrari, Roy J.. ed. Treatises on various subjects (1st pbk. reprint. ed.). New York: Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 978-0-8132-1320-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=IlBj6Kyadd0C. 
  17. ^ Schaff, Philip (1887). A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: St. Augustin: On the Holy Trinity. Doctrinal treatises. Moral treatises. The Christian Literature Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=vwoNAAAAIAAJ&q=lying%20retractations&f=false. 
  18. ^ Imre, Robert; Mooney, T. Brian, Clarke, Benjamin (2008). Responding to terrorism : political, philosophical and legal perspectives ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-7277-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=WpOVPCNd2VwC&pg=PA75. 
  19. ^ Num. 23:19
  20. ^ Hab. 2:3
  21. ^ Heb 6:13–18
  22. ^ 2 Thess. 2:11
  23. ^ 2 Thess. 2:11
  24. ^ 1 Kings 22:23
  25. ^ Ezek. 14:9
  26. ^ Blue Letter Bible: 2 Thessalonians 2 NKJV
  27. ^ Blue Letter Bible: 1 Kings 22 NKJV
  28. ^ Blue Letter Bible: Ezekiel 14 NKJV
  29. ^ See also: O'Neill, Barry. (2003). "A Formal System for Understanding Lies and Deceit." Revision of a talk for the Jerusalem Conference on Biblical Economics, June 2000.
  30. ^ Quran 42:24
  31. ^ a b Quran 9:42
  32. ^ Quran 9:2
  33. ^ Quran 17:81
  34. ^ Quran 29:13; 45:27; 58:18
  35. ^ Quran 40:28; 61:7
  36. ^ Quran 7:152; 18:15
  37. ^ Quran 9:107
  38. ^ Quran 16:62
  39. ^ Quran 59:11; 63:1
  40. ^ Quran 61:7
  41. ^ 64:10
  42. ^ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.13.budd.html
  43. ^ VTA.gamall-steinn.org

Further reading

  • Adler, J.E. "Lying, deceiving, or falsely implicating," Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 94 (1997), 435–52.
  • Aquinas, T., St. "Question 110: Lying," in Summa Theologiae (II.II), Vol. 41, Virtues of Justice in the Human Community (London, 1972).
  • Augustine, St. "On Lying" and "Against Lying," in R.J. Deferrari, ed., Treatises on Various Subjects (New York, 1952).
  • Bok, S. Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, 2d ed. (New York, 1989).
  • Carson, Thomas L. (2006). "The Definition of Lying". Nous 40 (2): 284–306. doi:10.1111/j.0029-4624.2006.00610.x. 
  • Chisholm, R.M.; Feehan, T.D. (1977). "The intent to deceive". Journal of Philosophy 74 (3): 143–59. doi:10.2307/2025605. JSTOR 2025605. 
  • Davids, P.H.; Bruce, F.F.; Brauch, M.T. & W.C. Kaiser, Hard Sayings of the Bible (InterVarsity Press, 1996).
  • Fallis, Don (2009). "What is Lying?". Journal of Philosophy 106 (1): 29–56. SSRN 1601034. 
  • Flyvbjerg, B. "Design by Deception". Harvard Design Magazine, no. 22, Spring/Summer 2005, 50–9.
  • Frankfurt, H.G. "The Faintest Passion," in Necessity, Volition and Love (Cambridge, MA: CUP, 1999).
  • Frankfurt, Harry, On Bullshit (Princeton University Press, 2005).
  • Kant, I. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, The Metaphysics of Morals and "On a supposed right to lie from philanthropy," in Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy, eds. Mary Gregor and Allen W. Wood (Cambridge: CUP, 1986).
  • Lakoff, George, Don't Think of an Elephant, (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004).
  • Leslie I Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit (2011)
  • Mahon, J.E. (2003). "Kant on Lies, Candour and Reticence," Kantian Review, Vol. 7, 101–33.
  • Mahon, J.E. (2008). "The Definition of Lying and Deception," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Mahon, J. E., "Lying," Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd ed., Vol. 5 (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Macmillan Reference, 2006), pp. 618–9.
  • Mahon, J.E. "Kant and the Perfect Duty to Others Not to Lie," British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Vol. 14, No. 4 (2006), 653–85.
  • Mahon, J.E. "Kant and Maria von Herbert: Reticence vs. Deception," Philosophy, Vol. 81, No. 3 (2006), 417–44.
  • Mannison, D.S. "Lying and Lies," Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 47 (1969), 132–44.
  • O'Neill, Barry. (2003). "A Formal System for Understanding Lies and Deceit." Revision of a talk for the Jerusalem Conference on Biblical Economics, June 2000.
  • Siegler, F.A. "Lying," American Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 3 (1966), 128–36.
  • Sorensen, Roy (2007). "Bald-Faced Lies! Lying Without the Intent to Deceive". Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 88 (2): 251–64. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0114.2007.00290.x. 
  • Margaret Talbot (2007). Duped. Can brain scans uncover lies?. The New Yorker, July 2, 2007.

External links


Top

Dansk (Danish)
1.
v. intr. - ligge, hvile, ligge begravet, strække sig, kunne tages til følge, kunne opretholdes, tilbringe natten, bo
n. - beliggenhed, måden hvorpå noget ligger, leje, tilholdssted

idioms:

  • lie about    flyde, ligge fremme
  • lie around    ligge og flyde
  • lie at somebody's door    skylden er den andens, den anden har skylden
  • lie back    læne sig tilbage
  • lie behind    ligge bag
  • lie down    lægge sig, falde ned
  • lie heavy    ligge tungt, trykke, tynge
  • lie in    barsle, føde
  • lie in store    på lager, i reserve
  • lie in wait    ligge på lur, ligge i baghold
  • lie low    ligge i støvet, være kastet til jorden, gå stille med dørene, holde sig i baggrunden, ligge død, skjule sine virkelige hensigter
  • lie up    lægge op
  • lie with    påhvile, bero på, ligge hos, sove med
  • take something lying down    finde sig i, finde sig i uden et ord

2.
n. - løgn
v. intr. - lyve
v. tr. - lyve

idioms:

  • give the lie to    bevise at noget er en løgn, gøre noget til en løgn
  • lie detector    løgnedetektor
  • live a lie    leve på en løgn
  • lying through their teeth    lyve, løgn i deres hals

Nederlands (Dutch)
liggen, zich bevinden, rusten, begraven liggen, liegen, laten/blijven (liggen), (zich) verschuilen, ontvankelijk/ houdbaar zijn (juridisch), leugen, ligging, leger (dier)

Français (French)
1.
v. intr. - être couché, se trouver, être, tenir (la neige), consister en, s'étendre, (Jur) être recevable
n. - (Géol) gisement, disposition (du terrain, etc), (Constr) tracé (d'une route), lie (au golf)

idioms:

  • lie about    traîner, traîner dans, laisser traîner
  • lie ahead    (ce qui) reste à venir, (ce que) réserve l'avenir
  • lie around    traîner, traîner dans, laisser traîner
  • lie at someone's door    tenir (qn) pour responsable de qch, faire porter la responsabilité de (qch) à qn
  • lie back    s'allonger
  • lie behind    soutenir, être la véritable raison/cause de (qch)
  • lie down    s'allonger, s'étendre, se coucher
  • lie heavy    peser sur
  • lie in    faire la grasse matinée
  • lie in store    ce que réserve l'avenir
  • lie in wait    baisser les bras en attendant
  • lie low    (fig) garder un profil bas
  • lie off    (Naut) rester au large
  • lie over    être ajourné (un problème)
  • lie to    (Naut) tenir le cap, être à l'ancre
  • lie up    garder le lit, se cacher, être en panne (une voiture), désarmer (un bateau)
  • lie with    incomber à, être le rôle de (qn) de, coucher avec (arch)
  • take something lying down    accepter qch sans protester

2.
n. - mensonge
v. intr. - mentir, tricher
v. tr. - mentir

idioms:

  • give the lie to    démentir, donner tort (à qn)
  • lie detector    détecteur de mensonge
  • lie through one's teeth    mentir effrontément
  • live a lie    vivre dans le mensonge

Deutsch (German)
1.
v. - liegen, sich legen, zulässig sein
n. - Lage, Position, Lager

idioms:

  • lie about    herumliegen
  • lie ahead    etwas wird geschehen, etwas od.jdn erwarten
  • lie around    herumliegen
  • lie at someone's door    jdn etwas zur Last legen, eigene Verantwortung sein
  • lie back    sich zurücklehnen
  • lie behind    dahinterstecken
  • lie down    sich hinlegen
  • lie heavy    jmdm. schwer auf dem Magen/auf der Seele liegen
  • lie in    in die Wochen kommen, (morgens) im Bett bleiben
  • lie in store    jmdn. erwarten
  • lie in wait    im Hinterhalt liegen
  • lie low    am Boden liegen
  • lie off    (naut) ablegen
  • lie over    vertagt werden
  • lie to    (naut) beidrehen
  • lie up    das Bett hüten, nicht im Dienst sein
  • lie with    jmdm. beiliegen, bei jmdm. liegen
  • take something lying down    sich gefallen lassen, hinnehmen

2.
n. - Lüge
v. - lügen, belügen, anlügen

idioms:

  • give the lie to    Lügen strafen
  • lie detector    Lügendetektor
  • lie through one's teeth    das Blaue vom Himmel runterlügen
  • live a lie    jmds. Leben ist eine einzige Lüge

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - ψεύδομαι, κείμαι, βρίσκομαι, απλώνομαι, είμαι ξαπλωμένος, μένω
n. - ψέμα, διάταξη χώρου

idioms:

  • give the lie to    διαψεύδω κατηγορηματικά, βγάζω ψεύτη
  • lie about    λέω ψέματα για, περιβάλλω, βρίσκομαι σκορπισμένος εδώ κι' εκεί
  • lie around    περιβάλλω
  • lie at somebody's door    αποδίδω σε κάποιον λάθος, ευθύνη
  • lie back    ανακλίνομαι, γέρνω πίσω, ξεκουράζομαι
  • lie behind    έχω περάσει
  • lie detector    ανιχνευτής ψεύδους
  • lie down    ξαπλώνω, πλαγιάζω
  • lie heavy    βαραίνω
  • lie in    χουζουρεύω
  • lie in store    είμαι αποθηκευμένος, περιμένω, είμαι στα μελλούμενα
  • lie in wait    ενεδρεύω, καραδοκώ, στήνω καρτέρι
  • lie low    λουφάρω, καιροσκοπώ, ενεδρεύω, ελλοχεύω
  • lie up    μένω στο κρεβάτι, κρύβομαι
  • lie with    βαρύνω
  • live a lie    ζω ένα ψέμα
  • lying through their teeth    που ψεύδονται ασύστολα
  • take something lying down    δέχομαι κάτι αδιαμαρτύρητα

Italiano (Italian)
trovarsi, giacere, mentire, bugia

idioms:

  • give the lie to    smentire
  • lie around/about    bighellonare
  • lie at somebody's door    invocar pietà
  • lie back    distendersi
  • lie behind    esser dietro
  • lie detector    lie-detector
  • lie down    sdraiarsi
  • lie heavy    causare disturbo
  • lie in    poltrire
  • lie in store    stare in agguato
  • lie in wait    mettersi in attesa
  • lie low    non farsi notare
  • lie up    nascondersi
  • lie with    esser responsabile di
  • live a lie    vivere falsamente
  • lying through their teeth    mentire a faccia tosta

Português (Portuguese)
v. - mentir, jazer, encontrar-se, repousar
n. - mentira (f), posição (f), disposição (f), toca (m)

idioms:

  • give the lie to    desmentir
  • lie around/about    estar espalhado
  • lie at somebody's door    esperar por alguém
  • lie back    recostar-se
  • lie behind    algo que está por trás de uma situação
  • lie detector    detector (m) de mentiras
  • lie down    deitar-se
  • lie heavy    mentir pesado
  • lie in    estar para dar à luz
  • lie in store    se resguardar
  • lie in wait    ficar de emboscada
  • lie low    esconder-se
  • lie up    se esconder da polícia
  • lie with    ter o poder
  • live a lie    sustentar uma mentira
  • lying through their teeth    dizer algo que é completamente falso
  • take something lying down    tirar uma soneca

Русский (Russian)
лгать, лежать, располагаться, сохраняться, признаваться законным, ложь, положение, берлога

idioms:

  • give the lie to    уличить кого-л. во лжи, обвинить во лжи
  • lie around/about    валяться, лежать в беспорядке
  • lie at somebody's door    лежать на чьей-л. совести
  • lie back    откинуться (на подушку и т.д.)
  • lie behind    подразумеваться, скрываться за чем-л.
  • lie detector    детектор лжи
  • lie down    прилечь, проявить покорность
  • lie heavy    тяготить душу
  • lie in    оставаться в постели, стоить
  • lie in store    сидеть в засаде, предстоять
  • lie in wait    подстерегать кого-л.
  • lie low    притаиться
  • lie up    лежать в постели, стоять в доке, отстраниться от дел, спрятаться
  • lie with    находиться в чьей-л. компетенции
  • live a lie    вести недостойную жизнь
  • lying through their teeth    бесстыдно лгать
  • take something lying down    принять без сопротивления

Español (Spanish)
1.
v. intr. - estar, encontrarse, estar situado, yacer, estar enterrado, echarse, acostarse, tenderse
n. - posición

idioms:

  • lie about    estar esparcidos, estar en desorden, estar tirado, estar tumbado o echado sin hacer nada
  • lie ahead    estar por delante de
  • lie around    estar esparcidos, estar en desorden, estar tirado, estar tumbado o echado sin hacer nada
  • lie at someone's door    cuplar a alguien, imputar a alguien
  • lie back    recostarse, estar retranqueado
  • lie behind    estar detrás de
  • lie down    echarse, acostarse, tenderse, tumbarse
  • lie heavy    pesar
  • lie in    levantarse tarde, dormirse, pegársele las sábanas a una persona, estar de parto, quedarse en la cama
  • lie in store    que deparará el porvenir
  • lie in wait    estar ocultos para sorprender
  • lie low    esconderse temporalmente, ocultar las intenciones, esperar la ocasión
  • lie off    (Mar) estar a poca distancia de la costa o de otro barco
  • lie over    posponer
  • lie to    ser de cierta manera, estar en cierta posición
  • lie up    esconderse, descansar, estar sin utilizar, desarmar, guardar cama
  • lie with    yacer o acostarse con, ser problema de, tener relaciones sexuales con, corresponder o tocar a
  • take something lying down    aceptar sin protestar, soportar sin chistar

2.
n. - mentira, embuste, situación
v. intr. - mentir
v. tr. - poner a uno en cierto estado o situación

idioms:

  • give the lie to    desmentir, dar el mentís, demostrar que algo es falso, refutar
  • lie detector    detector de mentiras
  • lie through one's teeth    mentir descaradamente
  • live a lie    vivir en la mentira

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - ljuga, ligga, ligga begraven, vila, utbreda sig, vara belägen, befinna sig, vara, (om väg o.d.) gå, (sjö.) ligga an (viss kurs), (jur.) äga laglig grund
n. - lögn, osanning, läge, belägenhet, riktning, sträckning, tillstånd, beskaffenhet, lega, (djurs) tillhåll, (kortsp.) sits

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 躺, 卧, 呈...状态, 置于, 被平放, 在于, 位置, 栖息处, 状态

idioms:

  • give the lie to    拆穿某事的虚伪性, 指责...说谎
  • lie about    点缀, 无所事事
  • lie around    点缀, 无所事事
  • lie at somebody's door    归于某人
  • lie back    倚靠在椅子上
  • lie behind    为某事之理由
  • lie detector    测谎器
  • lie down    躺下休息
  • lie heavy    使...难过, 沉重地压在
  • lie in    睡懒觉, 待产
  • lie in store    有存货, 即将发生, 等待着
  • lie in wait    埋伏着等待
  • lie low    平躺, 潜伏, 大败
  • lie up    隐蔽, 退休, 躲藏
  • lie with    由...决定, 取决于
  • live a lie    做人虚伪
  • lying through their teeth    撒大谎
  • take something lying down    受挫败, 俯首屈服, 感受

2. 谎话, 谎言, 撒谎, 造成错觉, 欺骗, 用欺骗致使

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 謊話, 謊言
v. intr. - 撒謊, 造成錯覺, 欺騙
v. tr. - 用欺騙致使

2.
v. intr. - 躺, 臥, 呈...狀態, 置於, 被平放, 在於
n. - 位置, 棲息處, 狀態

idioms:

  • give the lie to    拆穿某事的虛偽性, 指責...說謊
  • lie about    點綴, 無所事事
  • lie around    點綴, 無所事事
  • lie at somebody's door    歸於某人
  • lie back    倚靠在椅子上
  • lie behind    為某事之理由
  • lie detector    測謊器
  • lie down    躺下休息
  • lie heavy    使...難過, 沉重地壓在
  • lie in    睡懶覺, 待產
  • lie in store    有存貨, 即將發生, 等待著
  • lie in wait    埋伏著等待
  • lie low    平躺, 潛伏, 大敗
  • lie up    隱蔽, 退休, 躲藏
  • lie with    由...決定, 取決於
  • live a lie    做人虛偽
  • lying through their teeth    撒大謊
  • take something lying down    受挫敗, 俯首屈服, 感受

한국어 (Korean)
1.
v. intr. - 눕다, 묻혀 있다, 놓여있다, ~로 있다, 지나고 있다
n. - 놓인 모양 , 상태, 방향 , 정세, 휴식

idioms:

  • lie about    제멋대로 놓여 있다, 빈둥빈둥 지내다
  • lie around    아무렇게나 놓여 있다, 빈둥빈둥 지내다
  • lie back    눕다 , 삼가다
  • lie behind    과거의 일로서 존재하다, 배후에 있다
  • lie down    눕다, 잠깐 자다, 굴복하다
  • lie in    해산 자리에 눕다, 늦잠 자다
  • lie up    휴양하다, 은퇴하다, 숨다
  • lie with    의무이다, ~과 자다
  • take something lying down    감수하다

2.
n. - 거짓말, 허연, 사기, 미신
v. intr. - 거짓말하다, 속이다
v. tr. - 거짓말하여 ~하다, 거짓말하여 빼앗다

idioms:

  • give the lie to    거짓말 했다고 책망 받다, 거짓임을 증명하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 位置, 方向, ボールの位置, 嘘
v. - 横たわる, ある, 位置する, 広がっている, 見いだされる, 状態にある, 合法である, うそを言う, 欺く

idioms:

  • let sleeping dogs lie    そっとしておく
  • lie around/about    乱雑におかれている, 無為に過ごす
  • lie at somebody's door    罪などがある
  • lie back    後ろにもたれる
  • lie behind    後ろに位置する
  • lie detector    うそ発見器
  • lie down    横になる, 屈服する
  • lie heavy    重くのしかかる
  • lie in    寝坊をする, お産の床につく
  • lie in ambush    待ち伏せする
  • lie in state    正装安置される
  • lie in store    貯えてある
  • lie in wait    待ち伏せする
  • lie low    身を隠す, じっとしている, うずくまる, 身を潜める, 好機をうかがう
  • lie up    病床につく, 引きこもる, 身を隠す
  • lie with    役目である, …といっしょに寝る

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يتمدد, يضطجع, يتربص, يترصد في كمين, يكون تحت رحمه طرف أو أحد, يكون في وضع صعب لا يستطيع معه الدفاع عن نفسه, يكون موضوعا كتاب يكون موضوعا على الرف مثلا, يتجه, يمتد الطريق يمتد أمامك مثلا, يقع فرنسا تقع إلى الغرب من ألمانيا مثلا, يكمن في العلاج الحقيقي يكمن في التربيه مثلا, يثقل, يرهق ضميره, يحظى بالقبول, ينقذ نفسه عن طريق الكذب (الاسم) وضع, موقع, مكمن الطائر أو الحيوان أو السمكه, إضطجاع, إستلقاء, كذب, كذبه, أكذوبه, شئ مضلل, خادع, إتهام بالكذب‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. intr. - ‮שכב, נח, רבץ, נמצא, שכן, השתרע, התקבלה (התנגדות לדברי פרקליט במשפט)‬
n. - ‮תנוחה, מצב, מיקום, מקום-מסתור של חיה או ציפור‬
n. - ‮שקר, אמונה שגויה‬
v. intr. - ‮שיקר, רימה‬
v. tr. - ‮חילץ את עצמו באמצעות שקר‬


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