Word.ws English Dictionary

lying behind

lying behind is the present participle and gerund of lie behind.

Meaning of lie behind

Verb

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

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lie, behind.
  2. To be the ultimate cause of.
    • What truly lies behind her sudden change of heart?

Questions about lying behind

What is lying behind the present participle and gerund of?
Lying behind is the present participle and gerund of lie behind.

Words near lying behind in the dictionary

  1. lying at someone's door
  2. lying at someone's heart
  3. lying back
  4. lying back and thinking of England
  5. lying before
  6. lying behind
  7. lying by
  8. lying doggo
  9. lying down
  10. lying down on the job
  11. lying flat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lying behind (page history and authors); lie behind (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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Cite this entry: “lying behind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lying_behind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.