Word.ws English Dictionary

lying

Syllables: ly·ingUK/ˈlaɪ.ɪŋ/

lying is the present participle and gerund of lie.

lying is the simple past and past participle of lye.

Meaning of lie

Verb

lie (third-person singular simple present lies, present participle lying, simple past lay or (colloquial) laid, past participle lain or (colloquial) laid or (obsolete) lien)

  1. (intransitive) To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
    • The book lies on the table; the snow lies on the roof; he lies in his coffin.
  2. (intransitive) To be placed or situated.
    • Ying-yang county lies 70 li southwest of the modern Teng-feng county, Honan.1988, Robin D. S. Yates, “Selected Translations”, in Washing Silk: The Life and Selected Poetry of Wei Chuang (834?-910), Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 100
  3. (copulative, intransitive) To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition.
    • to lie waste; to lie fallow; to lie open; to lie hidden; to lie grieving; to lie under one's displeasure; to lie at the mercy of the waves
  4. Used with in: to be or exist; to belong or pertain; to have an abiding place; to consist.
    • Envy lies between beings equal in nature, though unequal in circumstances.c. 1690, Jeremy Collier, Of Envy
  5. Used with with: to have sexual relations with.
    • And it came to passe after these things, that his masters wife cast her eyes vpon Ioseph, and shee said, Lie with me.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 39:7
  6. Used with on/upon: to be incumbent (on); to be the responsibility of a person.

See all 22 meanings of lie

Meaning of lye

Verb

lye (third-person singular simple present lyes, present participle lyeing, simple past and past participle lyed)

  1. To treat with lye.

See all 6 meanings of lye

Noun (1)

lying (plural lyings)

  1. The act of one who lies, or keeps low to the ground.
    • But whom could the lyings in wait of the human heart escape?1854, Saint Augustine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXIV, translated by Philip Schaff et al.

Noun (2)

lying (plural lyings)

  1. An act or telling a lie or falsehood; the practice of telling lies.
    • [W]hether a man would fain be pleased with sin, or be quiet and fearless when he hath sinned, or continue in it, or persuade others to it, he must do it by false propositions, by lyings, and such weak discourses as none can believe but such as are born fools, or such as have made themselves so, or...1653, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year, […]: Sermon XX. [Apples of Sodom; or, The Fruits of Sin.] Part II.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of...
    • Trump’s lying is no less constant or blatant than in 2016, but by now it feels familiar, already priced in. What more is there to say about the “war on truth” a decade into Trump’s political career?2025 October 2, William Davies, “A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0”, in The Guardian

Adjective

lying (not generally comparable, comparative more lying or lyinger, superlative most lying or lyingest)

  1. (not comparable, usually) Tending to tell lies, untruthful, mendacious
    • Gloster: Then, Saunder, sit there, the lyingest knave in Christendom.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • Sly: Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Forms of lying

Noun
plurallyings
Adjective
comparativemore lying
comparativelyinger
superlativemost lying
superlativelyingest

Origin of lying

lie (“to rest in a horizontal position”) + -ing.

lie (“to intentionally give false information”) + -ing.

lye. (a chemical liquid)

Words formed from lying

Phrases with lying

31 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with lying

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about lying

What does lying mean?
Lying means the act of one who lies, or keeps low to the ground.
What is lying the present participle and gerund of?
Lying is the present participle and gerund of lie.
What part of speech is lying?
Lying can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce lying?
Lying is pronounced /ˈlaɪ.ɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of lying?
The plural of lying is lyings.

Words near lying in the dictionary

  1. lygosomine
  2. lygus bug
  3. lygus bugs
  4. Lyhne
  5. lyin'
  6. lying
  7. lying above
  8. lying ahead
  9. lying along
  10. lying around
  11. lying at someone's door

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lying (page history and authors); lie (page history and authors); lye (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lying.ogg.

Cite this entry: “lying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.