Word.ws English Dictionary

lie in

lie in verb: to be brought to bed in childbirth.

Verb

lie in (third-person singular simple present lies in, present participle lying in, simple past lay in, past participle lain in)

  1. (archaic) To be brought to bed in childbirth.
    • he had been driven to it by the distress he mentioned, the greatest indeed imaginable, that of five hungry children, and a wife lying in of the sixth, in the utmost want and misery.1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 467
  2. (UK) To stay in bed (longer than usual).
    • I've got a day off tomorrow, so I might lie in till about 11.

Forms of lie in

third-person singular presentlies in
present participlelying in
pastlay in
past participlelain in

Words formed from lie in

Questions about lie in

What does lie in mean?
Lie in means to be brought to bed in childbirth.
What part of speech is lie in?
Lie in is a verb.
What is the past tense of lie in?
The past tense of lie in is lay in.

Words near lie in in the dictionary

  1. Lie group
  2. Lie groupoid
  3. Lie groupoids
  4. Lie groups
  5. lie ill in one's mouth
  6. lie in
  7. lie in ambush
  8. lie in honor
  9. lie in one's throat
  10. lie in repose
  11. lie in state

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lie in (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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