BELIE (belying)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: belying   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does belie mean? 

• BELIE (verb)
  The verb BELIE has 2 senses:

1. be in contradiction with

2. represent falsely

  Familiarity information: BELIE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BELIE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they belie    ... he / she / it belies   
Past simple: belied   
Past participle: belied   
-ing form: belying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be in contradiction with

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

belie; contradict; negate

Hypernyms (to "belie" is one way to...):

depart; deviate; diverge; vary (be at variance with; be out of line with)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Represent falsely

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

belie; misrepresent

Context example:

This statement misrepresents my intentions

Hypernyms (to "belie" is one way to...):

represent (serve as a means of expressing something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "belie"):

sentimentalise; sentimentalize (look at with sentimentality or turn into an object of sentiment)

distort; falsify; garble; warp (make false by mutilation or addition; as of a message or story)

affect; dissemble; feign; pretend; sham (make believe with the intent to deceive)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

There was one, indeed, Sir Peter, who smote out like a true man; but, unless he is belied, he did but clip a varlet's ear, which was no very knightly deed.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The greater honeyguide is widely found in sub-Saharan Africa, where its unassuming brown plumage belies its complex interactions with other species.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

But while he belied Arthur's description, and appeared a gentle lamb rather than a wild man, he was racking his brains for a course of action.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then they became friendly, and played about in the nervous, half-coy way with which fierce beasts belie their fierceness.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He had a feeling of security that was belied by all his experience with men.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The promise of a smooth career, which my first calm introduction to Thornfield Hall seemed to pledge, was not belied on a longer acquaintance with the place and its inmates.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

After many skirmishes and snubbings, the ambitious pair were considered effectually quenched and went about with forlorn faces, which were rather belied by explosions of laughter when the two got together.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She seemed for an instant to wish to shrink back inside the house again; and then, seeing how useless all concealment must be, she came forward, with a very white face and frightened eyes which belied the smile upon her lips.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Harker smiled—actually smiled—the dark, bitter smile of one who is without hope; but at the same time his action belied his words, for his hands instinctively sought the hilt of the great Kukri knife and rested there.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was with reluctance that he suffered her to go; but there was no look of despair in parting to belie his words, or give her hopes of his being less unreasonable than he professed himself.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)