English Dictionary |
LIAR
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
IPA (US): |
Dictionary entry overview: What does liar mean?
• LIAR (noun)
The noun LIAR has 1 sense:
1. a person who has lied or who lies repeatedly
Familiarity information: LIAR used as a noun is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who has lied or who lies repeatedly
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
liar; prevaricator
Hypernyms ("liar" is a kind of...):
beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "liar"):
false witness; perjurer (a person who deliberately gives false testimony)
fabricator; fibber; storyteller (someone who tells lies)
Instance hyponyms:
Ananias (a habitual liar (after a New Testament character who was struck dead for lying))
Antonym:
square shooter (a frank and honest person)
Derivation:
lie (tell an untruth; pretend with intent to deceive)
Context examples
But you'll need to hold your gun straight in South America, for, unless our friend the Professor is a madman or a liar, we may see some queer things before we get back.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Must I call you a liar as well as a thief?
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Sir,” answered my uncle, “you are a liar, but how great a liar you are nobody knows save yourself.”
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The past is past, and the man who says history repeats itself is a liar.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
"Am I a liar in your eyes?" he asked passionately.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“THAT carrion! And he ever cared for her, she'd tell me. Ha, ha! The liars that these traders are!”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The methods we use in the laboratory are very different of those used, for example, by the Police, which uses the so‑called strategic interviewing (with questionnaires including ‘tricky’ questions and demanding a lot of details) to try and catch a liar.
(The most reliable scientific model to date for detecting when a person is lying, based on thermography, University of Granada)
Alleyne passed him swiftly by, for he had learned from the monks to have no love for the wandering friars, and, besides, there was a great half-gnawed mutton bone sticking out of his pouch to prove him a liar.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Did you venture to call me a liar?
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But I’ve promised, Jim, and you wouldn’t make me out a liar.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Slowly-slowly, even a file can turn a beam into a needle." (Albanian proverb)
"Seven trades but no luck." (Arabic proverb)
"The death of one person means bread for another." (Dutch proverb)