belie

Etymology 1

From Middle English belyen, beliggen, from Old English beliċġan, biliċġan (“to lie around, surround, hedge in, encompass”), from Proto-West Germanic *biliggjan, from Proto-Germanic *biligjaną (“to lie around”). Equivalent to be- (“around, by”) + lie (“to be positioned”).

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To lie around; encompass.
2. (transitive, obsolete, of an army) To surround; beleaguer.

Etymology 2

From Middle English belyen, beleoȝen, from Old English belēogan (“to deceive by lying, be mistaken”), from Proto-West Germanic *bileugan (“to belie”). Equivalent to be- (“about”) + lie (“to deceive”). Compare Dutch beliegen (“to lie about, tell lies”), German belügen (“to tell a lie”).

verb

1. (transitive, archaic) To tell lies about.
2. (transitive) To give a false representation of.
   Cambodia's apparent relative insignificance belied its geopolitical importance. 3 April 2013, Patrick Heenan, The Southeast Asia Handbook, Taylor & Francis, page 132
   Opposite, the Loram site contains a real ragbag of yellow, blue or rust-streaked kit whose appearance belies their importance in keeping the railways running. November 18 2020, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in Rail, page 49
3. (transitive) To contradict, to show (something) to be false.
   Her obvious nervousness belied what she said.
   Early Chinese Buddhist travellers like O'Kong (AD 759-763) mention the use of kesar in Buddhist Viharas for various rituals, and also in making paint for Buddhist scrolls and thankas. This fact belies the earlier myth that would have us believe that kesar was not known prior to Lalitaditya's reign. 2001, Arun Kaul, “Kesar: The cultural geography of Kashmir”, in The Human Landscape, page 227
4. (transitive, rare) To call a liar; to accuse of falsehood.
5. (transitive, rare) To fill with lies; to lie to.
   Three belied you, three betrayed you! One you betrayed was three times true! Lord Voryn Dagoth, Dagoth Ur, steadfast liegeman, faithful friend, bids you come and climb Red Mountain! May 1, 2002, Bethesda Softworks, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, →OCLC, Microsoft Windows, scene: Ashlander Informant
6. (transitive, perhaps nonstandard) To conceal the contradictory or ironic presence of (something).
   His calm demeanor belied his inner sense of guilt.
   The rosy outlook belies a struggle to achieve statewide eradication that has persisted since the insect first crossed the border from Mexico around 1892. 31 August 2013, Elizabeth Koh, “Fighting Pest, Farmers Find Strange Ally: A Drought”, in New York Times
   At NIE the virtually monolingual linguistic landscape basically belies a quite different multilingual reality. 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 8
7. (transitive, perhaps nonstandard) To show, evince or demonstrate (something) to be present, particularly something deemed contradictory or ironic.
   A host of evidence is adduced by the accused, evidence whose sometimes self-contradictory nature belies a certain desperation 1993, Carol A. Mossman, Politics and Narratives of Birth: Gynocolonization from Rousseau to Zola, Cambridge University Press, page 28
   […] a low, flat, boring building that belies its past as an IRS facility […] 3 August 2016, Jeanne Marie Laskas, “Inside the Federal Bureau Of Way Too Many Guns”, in GQ Online
8. (obsolete) To mimic; to counterfeit.