Word.ws English Dictionary

lie in state

lie in state verb: to be ceremonially placed in a state building after death to allow the public to pay their respects, often followed by a state funeral.

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive, such as a head of state) To be ceremonially placed in a state building after death to allow the public to pay their respects, often followed by a state funeral.
    • The body of the King was then taken to Westminster Hall to lie in state for three days.1952 April, “The Passing of King George VI”, in Railway Magazine, page 233
    • Representative Elijah E. Cummings, whose death on Thursday left both Republicans and Democrats mourning the loss of a lawmaker they praised as passionate and decent, will lie in state in the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday. […] No African-Americans have lain in state in the Rotunda, and...2019 October 19, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Cummings to Lie in State in the Capitol”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Forms of lie in state

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

Questions about lie in state

What does lie in state mean?
Lie in state means to be ceremonially placed in a state building after death to allow the public to pay their respects, often followed by a state funeral.
What part of speech is lie in state?
Lie in state is a verb.
What is the past tense of lie in state?
The past tense of lie in state is lay in state.

Words near lie in state in the dictionary

  1. lie in
  2. lie in ambush
  3. lie in honor
  4. lie in one's throat
  5. lie in repose
  6. lie in state
  7. lie in the bed one has made
  8. lie in the way
  9. lie in wait
  10. lie like a cheap rug
  11. lie like a cheap watch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lie in state (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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