give the lie to

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

give the lie to (third-person singular simple present gives the lie to, present participle giving the lie to, simple past gave the lie to, past participle given the lie to)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To reveal or prove (something) to be false; to refute.

   They found plenty of emails that gave the lie to his assertion that he didn't know about the incident.

   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 9, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 262:

     'The automatic under his pillow gave the lie to that statement.'

Synonyms

• give lie to
• put the lie to, put lie to, put to lie
• belie, contradict

Translations

to prove (something) to be false

• Finnish: kiistää (fi), osoittaa vääräksi
• Maori: whakatapeha
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: zadać kłam pf, zadawać kłam impf
• Spanish: desmentir (es)