What does lie mean

Crossword clues for lie

lie

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

lie

I.verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a mist hangs/lies somewhere (=stays in a place)

▪ A thick mist lay on the hills.

a web of intrigue/deceit/deception/lies etc

barefaced lies

▪ Why are you telling such barefaced lies?

be/lie at the root of sth (=be the cause of something)

▪ Allergies are at the root of a lot of health problems.

be/lie at the root of sth

▪ the liberal economic policies which lie at the root of American power

draw up/lay down a code (=create one)

▪ The syndicate decided to draw up a code of conduct for its members.

fit/lay a carpet (=cut it to fit a room and fix it to the floor)

▪ Will it cost extra to have the carpet fitted?

give your life/lay down your life (=die in order to save other people, or because of a strong belief)

▪ These men gave their lives during the war to keep us free.

have a lie down

▪ I’m going upstairs to have a lie down.

hope lies in/with sth (=something gives people hope)

▪ Our real hope lies with a vaccine.

lay a pipe

▪ They were digging a trench to lay water pipes.

lay down a principle (=describe a principle and make it accepted)

▪ The report lays down general principles for the teaching of English.

lay down/establish ground rules for sth

▪ Our book lays down the ground rules for building a patio successfully.

lay down/set/impose conditions (=say what sb must agree to)

▪ They laid down certain conditions before agreeing to the ceasefire.

lay flat on...back

▪ That night I lay flat on my back and stared up at the ceiling.

lay flat

▪ He lay flat on the floor.

lay mines (=put them in place)

▪ They learnt how to lay mines.

lay off employees (=stop employing them because there is no work for them to do)

▪ Unions fear that many part-time employees will be laid off.

lay on/put on entertainment (=organize and provide it)

▪ The organizers laid on some entertainment for the children.

lay reader

lay...eggs

▪ Blackbirds lay their eggs in March.

lay...foundations

▪ It took the builders three weeks to lay the foundations.

lay/place sth end to end (=in a line, with the ends touching)

▪ The roof tiles are laid end to end.

lay/run a cable (=put one in position somewhere)

▪ In the 1860s the first cables were laid under the oceans.

lay/set a trap (for sb)

▪ Mr Smith has walked straight into a trap laid by the Tories.

leave...lying about

▪ Don’t leave tools lying about.

lie ahead

▪ Problems may lie ahead.

lie awake

▪ Kate lay awake thinking about what had happened.

lie dead

▪ If I’m late, Mum worries that I’m lying dead somewhere.

lie detector test

▪ He was asked to take a lie detector test.

lie detector

▪ He was asked to take a lie detector test.

lie down

▪ I’m going upstairs to have a lie down.

lie fallow

▪ They let the land lie fallow for a year.

lie on the beach

▪ I find it boring just lying on the beach all day.

lie/remain dormant

▪ The seeds remain dormant until the spring.

lie/wait in ambush

▪ Armed police lay in ambush behind the hedge.

lying idle

▪ I cannot afford to leave the land lying idle.

lying prostrate

▪ They found him lying prostrate on the floor.

place/lay emphasis on sthformal

▪ The coach has placed the emphasis firmly on youth by including three teenagers in the team.

place/put/lay a bet on sth

▪ She placed a bet on a horse called Beethoven.

prepare/lay the ground (=to provide the situation or conditions in which something can develop successfully)

sb's/sth's strength lies in sth

▪ The show's strength lies in the fact that it appeals to all ages.

sb’s/sth’s future lies in/with sth (=it is in a particular thing )

▪ The country’s economic future lies with its skilled workforce.

set/lay down a standard

▪ The government sets standards that all hospitals must reach.

set/lay the table (=put knives, forks etc on a table before a meal)

▪ The table was set for fourteen.

sit/lie/sleep on the floor

▪ Officers found her lying face down on the floor.

spread lies/gossip

▪ How dare you spread such vicious lies!

▪ Has someone been spreading malicious gossip?

stand/sit/lie motionless

▪ The men stood motionless as Weir held his finger to his lips.

sth’s origins lie in sth (=something comes from a particular place or or develops from a particular situation)

▪ a grape whose origins lie in northern Italy

▪ The technique’s origins lie in the popular arts of the time.

tell a lie

▪ They told lies about us.

the blame lies with sb (=used to say that someone is responsible for something bad)

▪ In this case, the blame lay with the police.

the problem lies in/with sth

▪ The problem lies in the design of the rocket.

the responsibility lies with sb (=they are responsible for it)

▪ Ultimate responsibility for admissions lies with the Course Co-ordinator.

where your loyalties lie (=who or what you are going to be loyal to)

▪ Do your loyalties lie with your friends or your family?

white lie

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

about

▪ Cod, for instance, lay about nine million eggs into the plankton.

▪ Would I lie about a thing like this?

▪ At least he's not lying about one thing.

▪ What is there to lie about?

▪ He was, in other words, fired for refusing to lie about what he thought were proper marks.

▪ He was testing me out, leaving that cash lying about.

▪ For a while they hang about on trees; then they die, fall off and lie about on the ground.

ahead

▪ Already she was terrified of what lay ahead.

▪ Although generally optimistic, Dan knew that more challenges lay ahead.

▪ We the undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific community, hereby warn all humanity what lies ahead.

▪ Months of testing still lie ahead, with work being done at laboratories across the country.

▪ But that life was over now and a new one lay ahead.

▪ It is my first view of the road that lies ahead.

▪ Then the nakedness was covered: he had seen what lay ahead.

▪ Her surviving crew members, rich with prize money, are unprepared, perhaps, for what lies ahead -- peace.

around

▪ It is also dangerous to pick up needles or syringes that you see lying around.

▪ A writer should write, not lie around dozing in the middle of the day.

▪ Whenever possible he selected ones that contained pieces on the menopause and left them lying around where his wife could see them.

▪ Fossil bones were just lying around in the open.

▪ Falling over toys that have been left lying around can be fatal for elderly people and very serious for children. 3.

▪ Thou shalt not leave illegal things lying around in plain sight.

▪ The rye was growing so tall that Sharpe could not see what lay around the bend.

▪ When it was hot, we all lay around in the grass and talked about stuff.

back

▪ He walked without hesitation to the very front row, sat down and lay back, gazing up at the screen.

▪ Finally she lay back and cradled the crawling-already? girl in her arms.

▪ He lay back on his thick pile of cushions and chuckled.

▪ She held the in her hands in front of her chest and lay back down, facing him.

▪ Ianthe lay back on her pillows.

▪ Thinbill lay back and looked up at the stars.

▪ She lay back in the chair.

▪ It is real-time when you lay back on the delivery table and push like the doctor says.

down

▪ But Will took it lying down - all in a good cause of course.

▪ I used to lie down and have a sleep because I got very tired towards the end with the baby.

▪ You lay down and think about your animals.

▪ They took a peek, and then did everything but lay down and wag their tails.

▪ He was lying down and crying.

▪ They are not taking things lying down as many other Third World people tend to do.

▪ Some one like you is likely to lie down in the street and starve to death.

still

▪ He threw himself, face down, into the two-foot-deep trench and lay still.

▪ Months of testing still lie ahead, with work being done at laboratories across the country.

▪ He lay still, feeling the warm pulse of her body neatly folded against his.

▪ Still lying down, clasp your hands together and reach them as high as you can above your head.

▪ It still lay there on the keys, the fingers extended to form the shape.

▪ It still lay under the trees.

▪ Duncan lay still, confused and wondering why the Army had moved in from the south.

▪ We saw Hunter lying still, after a knock on the head.

there

▪ They lay there together for several minutes gasping and perspiring.

▪ On one particular day I lay there watching a strong, high wind move the clouds.

▪ If it was my father lying there what would I say to him?

▪ Louis to see what opportunity lay there.

▪ Partner reads ... While you are lying there concentrate on your breathing.

▪ She made no attempt to move when he came in, just lay there looking vulnerable.

▪ I also wondered how it was that I could feel so good in an apartment in which there lay a corpse.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a tissue of lies

▪ The Springall business was hidden by a tissue of lies.

be a good/quick/easy etc lay

▪ I don't deny it was a good lay.

be/lie at the bottom of sth

▪ His girlfriend had been woken by the noise, and had found him lying at the bottom of the stairs.

▪ Holman lay at the bottom of the open grave where he'd been roughly dumped.

▪ Knowing that self-interest lay at the bottom of his proposal did not prevent my being grateful.

▪ Mind you're not found lying at the bottom of the steps with a broken neck like Amy Robsart.

▪ The female's sperm storage tubules are sausage-shaped and sperm lie at the bottom of the tube.

▪ The rest, including your own clothes, now lie at the bottom of some deep, evil-smelling swamp.

▪ To deliver water from these depths the pumping machine has to be at the bottom of the well.

▪ Your name will be at the bottom of the letter-why write it twice?

be/lie in ruins

▪ Our economy lies in ruins.

▪ Whole blocks of the city were in ruins after the war.

▪ Abingdon's trade had been waning for some time, with its fulling mills lying in ruins and unemployment rife by 1538.

▪ Elizabeth Jarvis said it was like St Paul's Cathedral, miraculously saved while all around it lay in ruins.

▪ He thought the surrounding towns must lie in ruins now, too.

▪ I have said, and I say again, that Trantor will lie in ruins within the next five centuries.

▪ It was to lie in ruins for another sixty-one years.

▪ Large rural areas lay in ruins.

▪ The centrepiece was a gradual revaluation of the lira against the dollar-a strategy which now lies in ruins.

be/lie/sit sprawled (out)

▪ He was lying sprawled across the pillow leaning on his elbow, his head propped to one side, reading the letter.

▪ His rear gunner lay sprawled dead in the back.

▪ The next thing she knew, she was lying sprawled across the pavement.

▪ The observer lay sprawled across his gun, his blond hair streaming romantically in the wind.

▪ We may see a road accident but we shall never be sprawled out on the tarmacadam like that.

lay a guilt trip on sb

lay an egg

▪ The first episode of the series laid an egg.

▪ A few species laid eggs beneath mounds of rotten vegetation that warmed as it decayed.

▪ Adults grow to varying sizes, depending on food available, and lay eggs in late summer.

▪ Female brush turkeys visit the males' mounds, lay eggs in them, and depart.

▪ Gravid female fig wasps enter figs, lay eggs and die.

▪ In turn the later reptiles could diversify on land when they could lay eggs away from a watery environment.

▪ The wasp lays eggs inside the eggs laid by the whitefly, thereby destroying the whitefly eggs.

▪ These mate, fly away and the females find new plants to lay eggs on.

▪ Within it, they copulate and lay eggs.

lay it on with a trowel

lay sb to rest

▪ At nightfall she was tired and lay down to rest.

▪ Rather it attempted to lay the movement to rest.

▪ She took the pills and lay down to rest with her eyes closed.

▪ Then she lay down to rest in the lounge, surrounded by other women who even here never stopped talking.

▪ We can't even lay him to rest.

▪ Without proof I should really lay the idea to rest.

lay siege to sb/sth

▪ After his victory Edward rallied his troops and marched north to lay siege to Calais.

▪ Almost ten years had passed since they had first laid siege to the town, and it seemed as strong as ever.

▪ He laid siege to the fortress and gradually weakened it to the point of collapse.

▪ In 476 they laid siege to Eion, which guarded the Strymon bridge.

▪ In June 1176 Richard laid siege to Limoges; after a few days resistance Aimar's citadel capitulated.

▪ In less than two generations, since the Second World War, they have laid siege to the academic world.

▪ She had laid siege to the typists' room for some minutes before Marshall had persuaded her downstairs.

lay sth bare

▪ The depth of the problem is laid bare in the fact that 40% of 18- to 25- year-olds are unemployed.

▪ The excavation laid bare the streets of the ancient city.

lay your hands on sth

▪ Government reports, social legislation, anything she could lay her hands on that would better acquaint her with her work.

▪ He will sell anything he can lay his hands on in exchange for drugs, which includes any information he may have.

▪ I know exactly where to lay my hands on them.

▪ I like writing letters and reading anything I can lay my hands on!

▪ Kabari women use whatever birth control technology they can lay their hands on.

▪ Looters carried clothes out of shop windows along with anything else they could lay their hands on.

▪ Monday I felt driven to eat everything I could lay my hands on.

▪ Some one had to overturn the present political arrangements in the Limousin if he was ever to lay his hands on Hautefort.

lay/provide the foundation(s) for sth

▪ Tests on healthy people may lay the foundation for a vaccine to prevent AIDS.

▪ I think you have to lay the foundation for your success in terms of defense and rebounding.

▪ It laid the foundation for an organisation with greater appeal to the deaf themselves, particularly the young.

▪ These arguments provide the foundation for Simmel's account of the contradictory nature of modern life.

▪ This theory also laid the foundation for the modern revolution in our understanding of the deepest parts of the earth.

▪ To generate fundamental knowledge that can lay the foundation for future advances in high-performance computing and communications.

▪ We could say that she is laying the foundations for dressing herself later on.

▪ What is stressed rather is that the same phenomenon provides the foundation for both historical tendencies.

▪ While incomplete, the steps that were taken laid the foundation for Workplace 2000.

lay/put sth to rest

▪ Many of the public's doubts have now been laid to rest.

▪ A second glance put my mind to rest, but for a moment there it gave me a turn.

▪ I think this definitely puts it to rest.

▪ Kwasniewski has said he may dissolve parliament to put the issue to rest and call for new elections.

▪ Rather it attempted to lay the movement to rest.

▪ She took the pills and lay down to rest with her eyes closed.

▪ The time has come to put this to rest.

▪ Then she lay down to rest in the lounge, surrounded by other women who even here never stopped talking.

▪ Without proof I should really lay the idea to rest.

lie back and think of England

lie in state

▪ He lay in state, for ever disgraced.

▪ He lay on the marble slab in the centre of the tiny oblong chapel like a king lying in state.

▪ He may as well have been lying in state.

▪ Jane was fearful for a moment that Flopsy might be lying in state.

▪ President to lie in state while he was still alive.

not lay a finger on sb

pack of lies

▪ It's a pack of lies.

▪ It could all have been a pack of lies that Uncle Max cooked up because it gave him such power over Tawno.

▪ Nicholas frankly admitted that for the most part the reports were a pack of lies.

▪ Or was it all a pack of lies to make me give in?

patent lie/nonsense/impossibility etc

put/lay your cards on the table

▪ If they're willing to put all their cards on the table and negotiate, that's good.

▪ If we want to reach an agreement, we'll have to lay all our cards on the table.

▪ They're willing to put all their cards on the table and negotiate.

▪ Come on, you can lay your cards on the table in this house.

▪ The new rules appear to encourage parties to lay their cards on the table and facilitate early settlements.

put/lay/set down a marker

see/find out how the land lies

set/lay/clap eyes on sb/sth

▪ Bedford disliked Halsey the minute he set eyes on him.

▪ How could she possibly know, since he had not set eyes on the girl?

▪ I bonded on the second night I laid eyes on Hyakutake.

▪ Just hours earlier she had set eyes on the pretty two-year-old and sister Anna-Camilla, seven, for the first time.

▪ Never anywhere have I set eyes on such a one.

▪ No sooner did she set eyes on the gentleman than she recognised his pecuniary position to be merely temporary.

▪ The couple fell in love before they had even set eyes on each other during a six-month long distance courtship.

sit/lie/lean back

▪ Craig sighed and leaned back in his chair.

▪ But no one can sit back in investment clubs and just listen.

▪ He must generate all his own internal discipline against the possible inclination to lie back and enjoy his good fortune.

▪ He sat back on his heels, sorrowfully examining the ruined glove.

▪ He walked without hesitation to the very front row, sat down and lay back, gazing up at the screen.

▪ She heard him returning just as she sat back to admire her handiwork.

▪ Then she lay back on her pillow and they looked at each other as if it was for the first time.

▪ We started to sit back because we were up on the No. 1 team in the nation.

▪ Whatever some think, we don't sit back.

the lay of sth

▪ A lot of people, especially those new to the city, have no concept of the lay of the land.

▪ Failure to recognise slopes until committed to landing Make a point of looking for the lay of the surrounding countryside.

▪ It was therefore an important moment when Tolkien gave Lewis the Lay of Leithian to read in manuscript.

the lay of the land

▪ He's got to get the lay of the land before he makes any decisions.

▪ A lot of people, especially those new to the city, have no concept of the lay of the land.

therein lies sth

▪ The treaty was imposed by force, and therein lay the cause of its ineffectiveness.

time hangs/lies heavy on your hands

you've made your bed and you must lie on it

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

▪ "The witness was lying through his teeth," said Davis, "and should be charged with perjury."

▪ Lie on the floor and put your legs in the air.

▪ Almost every night I lie awake in bed worrying about my family.

▪ Don't lie to me! I know where you were last night.

▪ Frank was lying there flat on his back, snoring away.

▪ Her packed suitcase was lying near the door.

▪ I looked at her face and just knew that she was lying.

▪ I spent most of the morning lying in bed.

▪ Libby switched off the light and lay on the couch, staring into the darkness.

▪ Movie stars always lie about their age.

▪ Now the town lay in ruins.

▪ Recent storms destroyed a wall that had lain undisturbed underwater for thousands of years.

▪ Several letters were lying on the table.

▪ The baby was lying on his back in his crib, perfectly content.

▪ The camera doesn't lie.

▪ The children's clothes were lying all over the bedroom floor.

▪ When they found him, he was lying face down in a pool of blood.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

▪ He lay on the track for five minutes before being rescued by two friends who were also out riding.

▪ It doesn't set out to lie, of course, but it sometimes succeeds.

▪ Now, with the founder gone, these ominous flaws lay glaringly exposed.

▪ Public servants, like children with guns, learn to lie.

▪ She was dressed in a silk kimono and lying on the daybed when he went in.

▪ The immorality lies in the inherent wrongness of people deliberately killing other people.

▪ The jelly cupboard was on its back, its contents lying in a heap in the corner of the bottom shelf.

▪ We were both lying on our backs, our heads on our clasped hands.

II.verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

about

▪ Their droppings lay about like scattered handfuls of raisins.

▪ Would I lie about a thing like this?

▪ Cod, for instance, lay about nine million eggs into the plankton.

▪ Brown said some have deliberately injured ducks swimming in the lake and have left fishing lines lying about.

▪ At least he's not lying about one thing.

▪ Dietz could not say whether Erik is lying about alleged abuse by his father.

▪ What is there to lie about?

ahead

▪ Currently, attention is centred on the Irkutsk region's gas and oil resources, but many obstacles lie ahead.

▪ And almost alone among the early Hmong arrivals, he could see that storm signals lay ahead.

▪ Then the nakedness was covered: he had seen what lay ahead.

▪ But remember, dangers lie ahead.

▪ The horse-trading that lies ahead will end only when the three key players have said their piece.

▪ It had been a good spring for the President, but trouble lay ahead.

▪ And what lies ahead in 1993?

▪ What surfaces is the inevitable reckoning with what lies ahead.

around

▪ Lopped off brambles lay around and the long grass was all trampled.

▪ Perhaps there was a bit of bread lying around somewhere.

▪ These can be just those pieces which they find lying around the surface or they can be ripped off the growing plants.

▪ Thou shalt not leave illegal things lying around in plain sight.

▪ It is also dangerous to pick up needles or syringes that you see lying around.

▪ Then parents put up with the toy lying around for another couple of months before they want to get rid of it.

▪ The property room looked like a theatrical battlefield with masks and armour lying around in different stages of completion.

back

▪ The convulsions stopped and Charles lay back exhausted.

▪ I grope; then lie back.

▪ Frank was lying back on the pillows with his eyes closed.

▪ He covered his face and lay back and let the giggles take him.

▪ Laying my pack of cigarettes on the table, I lay back on the bed and looked at the ceiling.

▪ Thinbill lay back and looked up at the stars.

▪ He lay back on his thick pile of cushions and chuckled.

▪ She moaned and lay back, her eyes wide in the darkness.

down

▪ Still shivering, we were made to lie down, men and women in adjoining beds.

▪ He scooped out a hollow and lying down piled the leaves over him like a thick coverlet.

▪ I lay down across the path.

▪ Never mind that old sergeant major of yours won't lie down, you're not doin' any ironing.

▪ His own father would lie down after dinner, light a cigar, and listen to classical music.

▪ Then she lay down, still with her shoes on, and let herself cry.

▪ We set him on the coat, lay down on either side and sobbed along with him.

here

▪ And here lies a fundamental difference of opinion - how should a National Park operate?

▪ I lie here thinking, and then all at once my eyes close.

▪ And here lies a contradiction at the heart of AT&T's original business, even before it tried to get into computers.

▪ Her clothes and hair are soaked; she must have been lying here for a long time.

▪ The key here lies not with personal rivalries, as administrative historians would have us believe.

▪ Now you just lie here and enjoy the rest.

▪ A new territory lay here, in which she must live.

▪ Here lies a central dispute throughout the social sciences, and it is one to which we will often revert.

just

▪ The other phosphorylated region of c-Jun lies just upstream from the C-terminal bZIP domain that specifies dimerisation and DNA-binding.

▪ She had passed out there-or perhaps just lain down and drifted into sleep.

▪ I wasn't going to just lie down and die.

▪ He was just lying there looking at her as if he was dreaming with his eyes open.

▪ You are just lying there with these people washing, dressing and at the same time inflicting pain on you.

▪ He was just lying in the road, looking straight up.

▪ Now you just lie here and enjoy the rest.

▪ And then it just lies there on the screen, with all the inert charm of a well-dressed mannequin.

still

▪ He threw himself, face down, into the two-foot-deep trench and lay still.

▪ The bear fell over and lay still in the water.

▪ This one is about three hours old and still lying in the foetal position in which it emerged from the egg.

▪ The parcel still lay on the table, and both girls had stood up.

▪ It was quite obvious where Miss Rose's interests still lay.

▪ The sixth tanker still lay in the ravine, waiting for a crew to pull it out of the ditch.

▪ Rolling on to his back, he lay still as a corpse with only his face breaking the surface.

▪ We lay still, afraid to show that we were awake.

there

▪ It still lay there on the keys, the fingers extended to form the shape.

▪ But he was tired so he just lay there, listening to the street sounds, and waited for morning.

▪ He lay there, feeling very tender and protective, and put an arm rather tentatively around her.

▪ He lay there for a minute to get his breath.

▪ Both her dear sisters lay there in the basin, cruelly murdered, and cut in pieces.

▪ Between geologist and geology there lies a daunting barrier: the deep and rolling ocean.

▪ Well, then, lie there and believe what you like.

therein

▪ And therein lies the key criticism of Mr Lamont's move towards an energy efficient Britain.

▪ The theory of evolution by natural selection reached out far beyond biology, and therein lies its significance.

▪ She is not afraid of the outside world, but recognizes its beauty, and therein lies a danger.

▪ Not that she dared to hope for a reference from this place! Therein lay her difficulty.

▪ And therein lies a Daley legend.

▪ And therein lies the deepest fascination about records and milestones.

▪ More importantly, the adoption of these practices made the individual worker feel insignificant. Therein lies the problem.