Lie

/laɪ̯/ · verb

Meaning

(intransitive) To rest in a horizontal position on a surface..

Definitions by Sense

1. (intransitive) To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
2. (intransitive) To be placed or situated.
3. (intransitive, copulative) To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition.
4. Used with in: to be or exist; to belong or pertain; to have an abiding place; to consist.
5. Used with with: to have sexual relations with.
6. Used with on/upon: to be incumbent (on); to be the responsibility of a person.
7. (archaic) To lodge; to sleep.
8. To be still or quiet, like one lying down to rest.

Example Sentences

The book lies on the table; the snow lies on the roof; he lies in his coffin.

Under an oak were lying asleep a pair of shepherds.

Though ye haue lien among the pots, yet shall yee bee as the wings of a doue, couered with siluer, and her feathers with yellow gold.

The watchful traveller […] / Lay down again, and closed his weary eyes.

Our uninquiring corpses lie more low / Than our life's curiosity doth go.

The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.

Ying-yang county lies 70 li southwest of the modern Teng-feng county, Honan.

Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.

Synonyms for lie

Antonyms for lie

Related Words

Word Forms

• lies
• lying
• lay
• laid
• lain
• lien
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• lie
• lyest
• layst
• lyeth
• -
• lied
• liest
• liedst
• lieth

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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