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belie
in a sentence
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  • His thin hands belied a firm grip, as if steel hid beneath the moisturized skin.   (source)
    belied = gave a false impression regarding
  • Songs that led you to leap and alight in a manner that belied your age.   (source)
  •   "I come to do the Devil's work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves."
      His sarcasm collapses.   (source)
    belie = give a false impression of
  • The wound was short and thin, belying its depth.   (source)
    belying = giving a false impression of
  • The civility of this encounter belied a caustic battle being waged outside Jackson Park for the rights to illuminate the exposition.   (source)
    belied = gave a false impression regarding
  • In fact, his duties at home had imbued him with a sense of responsibility and self-reliance that belied his age and set him apart from his peers.   (source)
    belied = seemed to contradict
  • ...and he dug with an earnestness which belied the knowledge he must have had that no dog had ever caught a squirrel by digging in a hole.   (source)
    belied = gave a false impression regarding; or was in contradiction with
  • He had a feeling of security that was belied by all his experience with men.   (source)
    belied = contradicted
  • I obeyed, so far as to quit the chamber; when, ignorant where the narrow lobbies led, I stood still, and was witness, involuntarily, to a piece of superstition on the part of my landlord which belied, oddly, his apparent sense.   (source)
  • But it is the fault of our rhetoric that we cannot strongly state one fact without seeming to belie some other.   (source)
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show 5 more with this conextual meaning
  • Thou beliest thine own heart, Peleg.†   (source)
  • Thou dost belie her   (source)
    belie = give a false impression of
  • they have belied a lady   (source)
    belied = given false impression of
  • Thou dost belie him,   (source)
    belie = give a false impression of
  • No, not so, villain; thou beliest thyself: Here stand a pair of honourable men; A third is fled, that had a hand in it.†   (source)
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show 8 more with this conextual meaning
  • Her actions belie her words.
    belie = show to be false
  • But you look closely and you see the helpless look, the desperation, and how it belies all their show of good humor.   (source)
    belies = shows to be false
  • —he displayed deft skills as a bureaucratic obstructionist that further belied his reputation as a simpleton.   (source)
    belied = showed to be false
  • "I'm not frightened," whispered Lydia Sessions through white lips that belied her assertion.   (source)
  • Several days later, they invited Jefferson to dine, one of several events that belie claims made then and later that Adams and Jefferson refused to speak.   (source)
    belie = show to be false
  • Harker smiled, actually smiled, the dark, bitter smile of one who is without hope, but at the same time his action belied his words, for his hands instinctively sought the hilt of the great Kukri knife and rested there.   (source)
    belied = showed to be false
  • After many skirmishes and snubbings, the ambitious pair were considered effectually quenched and went about with forlorn faces, which were rather belied by explosions of laughter when the two got together.   (source)
  • It was with reluctance that he suffered her to go; but there was no look of despair in parting to belie his words, or give her hopes of his being less unreasonable than he professed himself.   (source)
    belie = show to be false
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • He possesses enormous talent, but I fear the fidgeting belies an underlying weakness.†   (source)
  • The sentinel glared back, his colorful costume belying his decidedly ominous air.†   (source)
  • I make myself as small as possible, as if my size could belie our closeness.†   (source)
  • There is something there that belies the callowhess and thoughtless egotism which you wear so well.†   (source)
  • He wore old-fashioned spectacles that made him look earnest and completely belied his easygoing charm and juvenile but totally disarming sense of humor.†   (source)
  • With speed that belied her size, she crossed the distance between them and engulfed him in her arms, lifting him clear off his feet and spinning him around like a little child.†   (source)
  • When he awoke from his nap, Florentino Ariza still remembered the shrieking of the cockatoo, whose strident calls belied his beauty.†   (source)
  • A kind of city-street music where laughter belies anxiety, and joy is as short and straight as the blade of a pocketknife.†   (source)
  • ONE DAY Saeed and Nadia were returning home with no food but modestly full bellies, after a reasonably good evening of foraging, and she was experiencing the peculiar sweet aftertaste and acidity of mustard and ketchup, and Saeed was looking at his phone, when they heard shouting up ahead and saw people running, and they realized that their street was under attack by a nativist mob, Palace Gardens Terrace being roiled in a way that belied its name.†   (source)
  • Said with a laugh that belied the content.†   (source)
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show 147 more examples with any meaning
  • You should not risk Mahtob's life" But something in his expression belied his words.†   (source)
  • Chock-full of breathtaking leaps and innovative steps that belie Ms.†   (source)
  • They all possessed a delicate, ethereal beauty that belied their unbreakable strength; to Eragon, they seemed flawless.†   (source)
  • Belying the otherwise peaceful scene, buzzards circled overhead.†   (source)
  • The vodka looks beautiful, with a lucent ruby softness that belies its spice and bite.†   (source)
  • The man he approached was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Jr. A dead ringer for actor Jimmy Stewart, Vanderbilt was a gangly twenty-five-yearold whose gentle, self-effacing manner belied his fabulous wealth.†   (source)
  • These records documented Chief Harley's assessment that Adam's goofy, sometimes clumsy, laid-back demeanor belied his outstanding professional performance as a SEAL.†   (source)
  • It had something to do with his natural exuberance and the way he'd made her feel a part of it; it was the fact that he had lived a life that seemed so different from hers, yet they still spoke the same language, a familiarity that belied the short period they had known each other.†   (source)
  • It was there, from his vantage point as altar boy, murmuring the Mass prayers in Latin, that he started to notice certain men who seemed to radiate a success and prosperity that belied the general hard times.†   (source)
  • He did direct them with an authority that belied his youth, and he had proven himself in every battle they had joined.†   (source)
  • He had a youthful face and boyish shoulders that belied the bags under his eyes and the gray streaks in his hair.†   (source)
  • It was mild—everything about him was calm—but Simon had the sense that the mildness hid something beneath it that belied his outward tranquility.†   (source)
  • Sure, the aesthetician tosses a washcloth the size of a gauze square over your privates when she's scrubbing you down, and she's got a poker face that never belies whether she's calculating your body mass index under her palms—but still, you're painfully aware of your physique, if only because someone's experiencing it firsthand with you.†   (source)
  • The old, dilapidated house stood in the setting sun, quiet and serene, belying the horror that it had harbored for so many years.†   (source)
  • Holland grinned; it was a smile of youth belied by streaked gray hair, the grin of a professional momentarily freed of executive concerns so as to return to the world he knew best.†   (source)
  • She was giggling, a light, lilting laughter that belied her grave state.†   (source)
  • His face belied the comfort of his words.†   (source)
  • His smooth pink face and choirboy eyes gave him an innocent demeanor that was belied by a disquietingly eager smile that came and went like the flickering of a serpent's tongue.†   (source)
  • The much-aged woman named Maggie lunged forward with a speed that belied her brittle exterior.†   (source)
  • They shared at least a hundred memories that could belie those cruel words.†   (source)
  • You should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands.†   (source)
  • His words belie the fact that he might have been court-martialed for allowing his boat to be sunk and two of his men to be killed.†   (source)
  • His stench belied the silence or anonymity of his approach.†   (source)
  • His face was so bony and gaunt that at times his sallow skin appeared transparent, but his pale blue eyes were sharp and belied a canny stealth and intelligence.†   (source)
  • David had borne this as he bore so many things—with a quiet stoicism that belied his youth.†   (source)
  • To look at him was like reading a relic typeface, like the first letter-block of a book, maybe the letter Y, his frame bent a little sideways as though a mule had fought one arm, the wide shoulders set back, curiously askance, a physical assemblage that belied his uncowering nature.†   (source)
  • Its people had retained their privacy and a measure of breathing room, giving the town an air of solitude that belied its numbers.†   (source)
  • Granadica seemed to belie that.†   (source)
  • With an aplomb that belied the fact of her near-nudity she slowly reached into her closet and drew on a robe of white terry cloth.†   (source)
  • 'I see that strange tales are woven about you,' said Denethor, 'and once again it is shown that looks may belie the man — or the halfling.†   (source)
  • What could be seen of the flat belied the rest of the building.†   (source)
  • But there was a seriousness to their visit belied by all the humor and banter.†   (source)
  • A prominent academic whose quiet manner belied his powerful heritage, Peter Solomon came from the ultrawealthy Solomon family, whose names appeared on buildings and universities all over the nation.†   (source)
  • Baby Kochamma would call out when she saw him, with a smile on her lips that completely belied the viselike grip that she had on the thin child's soapslippery arm.†   (source)
  • On the nearly deserted dock guarded by barefoot soldiers without uniforms, his sisters and mother were waiting for him, along with his closest friends, whom he found insipid and without expectations despite their sophisticated airs; they spoke about the crisis of the civil war as if it were remote and foreign, but they all had an evasive tremor in their voices and an uncertainty in their eyes that belied their words.†   (source)
  • Their eyes, language and customs belied the white skin and proved to their dark successors that since they didn't have to be feared, neither did they have to be considered.†   (source)
  • The serenity of Jade Tower Mountain was belied by the frantic activity inside the villa of Sheng Chou Yang.†   (source)
  • "I couldn't promise you'd live," Magnus said, but there was a spark of interest in his voice that belied the warning.†   (source)
  • Others watched the family gliding by with a tiny bit of jealousy and a whole lot of amusement, for Macon's wide green Packard belied what they thought a car was for.†   (source)
  • His admitted memory lapses of the geography of London streets seemed not to affect his pace—he moved from corner to corner under the gaslight with a speed and agility that belied his appearance.†   (source)
  • The lone exception was Xiumei, a wrinkled Chinese dumpling of a woman with a grandmotherly face that utterly belied the tales that Max had heard of her burning British opium ships, assassinating rival warlords, and driving a particularly lawless clan of vampires from her native province.†   (source)
  • I do not know what would have happened if Mr. Stanley had not stepped forward then and bellowed, with a voice that belied his age, "Quiet!"†   (source)
  • Despite the people hurrying through the streets, Carvahall was heavy with a forced stillness, an unnatural calm that belied the feverish activity hidden within the houses.†   (source)
  • 'You have government business in Zhuhai Shi?' she asked, her smile belied by her clouded, vaguely hostile eyes.†   (source)
  • "You seemed pleased at this parting," Wulfgar answered, a bit perturbed though the sparkle in his eyes at the sight of the girl belied his anger.†   (source)
  • But mind you"—and he looked up at her with a little smile that belied what he said next—"I am a surgeon, not a medical man.†   (source)
  • Standing at the fore of the gangplank was a young woman—tall, dressed like a pirate out of Stevenson, and displaying a commanding appearance that belied her obvious youth.†   (source)
  • Finally, the flap of the tent opened admitting Heafstaag's standard bearer, a youth, tall and proud, with observing eyes that carefully weighed everything about him and belied his age.†   (source)
  • Miss Bradford raised a hand to her brow, ostentatiously feigning a faintness that her avid eyes belied.†   (source)
  • Seated there were Jormundur and two other men, one tall and one broad; a woman with pinched lips, close-set eyes, and elaborately painted cheeks; and a second woman with an immense pile of gray hair above a matronly face, belied by a dagger hilt peeking out of the vast hills of her bodice.†   (source)
  • While he had been talking to Jakob Merrill, the fluency of his speech and the clarity of his expression had belied the fact that he had been attending at deathbeds since dawn.†   (source)
  • 'All is well,' she answered; yet it seemed to Merry that her voice belied her, and he would have thought that she had been weeping, if that could be believed of one so stern of face.†   (source)
  • Simple black T-shirt and Levis, though clean, totally belie the Beamer.†   (source)
  • But smoke trails zigzagging from chimneys belie the idea that I'm completely alone.†   (source)
  • The automobile plowed into the mound of debris-a huge, somnambulant insect crawling into garbage, its appearance belying the violence taking place inside its shell.†   (source)
  • Enigmatically, the president's informal aquatic habits belie the fact that he is the polar opposite of his easygoing vice president.†   (source)
  • …a broken sofa in the snow, and Klara thought these pictures were utterly modern in one sense only, that the subjects seemed photographed, overtly posing or caught unaware, sometimes self-consciously aloof, a housing project massed behind them or here's a man with lidded eyes and a watch cap and one of those bloated polyester jackets and a gun with banana clip—you see how Acey belies the photographic surface by making the whole picture float ineffably on the arc of the cartridge clip.†   (source)
  • The six-foot, four-inch Texan is a self-made man and career politician, a former high school teacher whose towering physique belies a fragile and sometimes insecure persona.†   (source)
  • A small motorboat, its powerful engine belying its shabby exterior, sped through the Lamma Channel, heading around the coastline towards the harbour.†   (source)
  • Instead, I stood by and watched father love turn to U S T. What Came Later Belies the purity of that first night.†   (source)
  • When the Calangute slipped its mooring, Saintly Amma raised her hand like a traffic policeman and, "using my sermon voice which I am told belies my age," intoned the words, "Leave your land for my sake," because Genesis was her favorite book.†   (source)
  • Painfully aware of my youth, I tried to belie my twenty-one years by acting mature and seasoned by experience.†   (source)
  • He whispered into the Franciscan's ear such thoughts and anecdotes as belied the notion of a guided world.†   (source)
  • The talismanic ring from the soul's encounter with its other portion in the place of recollectedness betokens that the heart was there aware of what Rip van Winkle missed; it betokens too a conviction of the waking mind that the reality of the deep is not belied by that of common day.†   (source)
  • Only the eyes belied this assumption.†   (source)
  • An hour later when the conversation began to lag, Gerald, with a guile that belied the wide innocence of his bright blue eyes, proposed a game.†   (source)
  • Mebbe you'll be better," said Wilson, with a cheerfulness his face belied.†   (source)
  • He said it brightly, smiling the while; still the look in his eyes belied the cheerful resignation.†   (source)
  • Perhaps Stewart's actions and looks belied his calm words.†   (source)
  • That the rise in the water was what she understood him to refer to, the state of breathing belied.†   (source)
  • He makes a mock-piteous face, belied by his laughing eyes.†   (source)
  • His behest he belied not; it was he dealt the rings, 80 The wealth at the high-tide.†   (source)
  • It made of her a woman, a Mormon woman, and strangely belied the lithe form and the braid of gold hair.†   (source)
  • "Who knows? you may have to sail with me for a time," he said, quite softly, with a silken threat that belied the softness, as they moved slowly to comply, "and we might as well start with a friendly understanding.†   (source)
  • He lit it clumsily, and folding his arms began to smoke in a languid attitude, an attitude which his occasional glances up the yard altogether belied.†   (source)
  • Yet she said this with a kind of sternness that somehow belied it—a click of the voice, as it were.†   (source)
  • Then I thought that the man I had just seen had been clothed in bluish cloth, had not been naked as a savage would have been; and I tried to persuade myself from that fact that he was after all probably a peaceful character, that the dull ferocity of his countenance belied him.†   (source)
  • But his look belied his hope.†   (source)
  • And then, after a time, recalling Belknap's advice, he managed to straighten up and with an air of studied ease and courage—which was belied to a certain extent by his strained, pale face and somewhat hazy stare—look at the writers and artists who were either studying or sketching him, and even to whisper: "Quite a full house, eh?"†   (source)
  • There was something in her face which belied her late assuring words, so strictly proper and so lifelessly spoken that they might have been taken from a list of model speeches in "The Wife's Guide to Conduct."†   (source)
  • I noted Oofty-Oofty, holding the end of a bandage and looking upon the scene, his velvety and luminous eyes glistening in the light like a deer's eyes, and yet I knew the barbaric devil that lurked in his breast and belied all the softness and tenderness, almost womanly, of his face and form.†   (source)
  • Then she put upon her the white frock that Tess had worn at the club-walking, the airy fulness of which, supplementing her enlarged coiffure, imparted to her developing figure an amplitude which belied her age, and might cause her to be estimated as a woman when she was not much more than a child.†   (source)
  • As for that Benedetto, who so grossly belied his name, have you never made any effort to trace out whither he has gone, or what has become of him?†   (source)
  • "And would you not like to be the one person who believed in that man's innocence, if the rest of the world belied him?†   (source)
  • When she pleaded to me her youth, and his wretched and hard life (that was her phrase for the virtuous training he had belied), and the desecrated ceremony of marriage there had secretly been between them, and the terrors of want and shame that had overwhelmed them both when I was first appointed to be the instrument of their punishment, and the love (for she said the word to me, down at my feet) in which she had abandoned him and left him to me, was it my enemy that became my…†   (source)
  • A white apron is a suspicious vesture in situations where spotlessness is difficult; moreover, the industry and cleanliness which the white apron expressed were belied by the postures and gaits of the women who wore it—their knuckles being mostly on their hips (an attitude which lent them the aspect of two-handled mugs), and their shoulders against door-posts; while there was a curious alacrity in the turn of each honest woman's head upon her neck and in the twirl of her honest eyes,…†   (source)
  • And it is impossible for me to say that Mr. Irwine was altogether belied by the generic classification assigned him.†   (source)
  • There's stabling in this place for a dozen horses; and unless Nickits is belied, he kept the full number.†   (source)
  • The game of the masters of politics was to cajole or force the public to pay the expense of a luxurious life and exciting amusement for a few cliques of ambitious persons: and the pretence of serious difference of opinion, belied by every action of their lives, was quite good enough for that.†   (source)
  • [Footnote q: [The Civil War of 1860-65 cruelly belied this statement, and in the course of the struggle the North alone called two millions and a half of men to arms; but to the honor of the United States it must be added that, with the cessation of the contest, this army disappeared as rapidly as it had been raised.†   (source)
  • The promise of a smooth career, which my first calm introduction to Thornfield Hall seemed to pledge, was not belied on a longer acquaintance with the place and its inmates.†   (source)
  • …France, came to M. sur M., conceived the idea which we have mentioned, accomplished what we have related, succeeded in rendering himself safe from seizure and inaccessible, and, thenceforth, established at M. sur M., happy in feeling his conscience saddened by the past and the first half of his existence belied by the last, he lived in peace, reassured and hopeful, having henceforth only two thoughts,—to conceal his name and to sanctify his life; to escape men and to return to God.†   (source)
  • Yet this demure affectation of extreme penitence was whimsically belied by a ludicrous meaning which lurked in his huge features, and seemed to pronounce his fear and repentance alike hypocritical.†   (source)
  • The Puritan—if not belied by some singular stories, murmured, even at this day, under the narrator's breath—had fallen into certain transgressions to which men of his great animal development, whatever their faith or principles, must continue liable, until they put off impurity, along with the gross earthly substance that involves it.†   (source)
  • Idomeneus belied his grizzled head and, calling on Danaans, with a bound scattered the Trojans, for he killed Othryoneus of Kabesos, a guest of Troy.†   (source)
  • But his next remark seemed to belie his gleeful exclamation.†   (source)
  • His tangible presence seemed to belie all the vague thoughts and hopes that Bigger had woven round him in his broodings.†   (source)
  • He speaks now with a kind of spurious brusqueness which, flabbyjowled and darkcaverneyed, his face belies.†   (source)
  • It was an agony to witness the fantastic extent to which the wolf had learned to belie his nature; and I stood there with my hair on end.†   (source)
  • And they had to because Harry wished, as every sentient being does, to be loved as a whole and therefore it was just with those whose love he most valued that he could least of all conceal and belie the wolf.†   (source)
  • And the old fool is seventy-three years old though he tries to act younger and he's as full of rheumatism as a hog is of fleas," said Grandma, proud of her husband, the light in her eyes belying her sharp words.†   (source)
  • I have not told of anything that interferes with or belies my love for you.†   (source)
  • He glanced at her and their eyes met, the reproach in his own belying his words.†   (source)
  • The camel seen at hand did not belie his appearance afar.†   (source)
  • "Therein you belie the natur' of an Indian.†   (source)
  • 'I think you belie her,' said Heathcliff, twisting his chair to face them.†   (source)
  • He spoke roughly in order to belie his air of gentility for his entry had been followed by a pause of talk.†   (source)
  • Then they became friendly, and played about in the nervous, half-coy way with which fierce beasts belie their fierceness.†   (source)
  • Not that he wished to be less well appearing, but that he was ashamed to belie his appearance by incongruous appeals.†   (source)
  • Hurstwood at first sympathized with the demands of these men-indeed, it is a question whether he did not always sympathize with them to the end, belie him as his actions might.†   (source)
  • "How strange of you to stay apart from her like this!" said Sue, her trembling lip and lumpy throat belying her irony.†   (source)
  • Neither, when the door was opened, did the inside appear to belie the outward promise, as there was faded carpeting on the stairs and faded oil-cloth in the passage; in addition to which discomforts a gentleman Ruler was smoking hard in the front parlour (though it was not yet noon), while the lady of the house was busily engaged in turpentining the disjointed fragments of a tent-bedstead at the door of the back parlour, as if in preparation for the reception of some new lodger who had…†   (source)
  • However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us.†   (source)
  • I shall not belie my training so much as to say I do not sometimes think of these things, but I fear it is not so often or so much as I ought.†   (source)
  • "I fear you not, Sir Knight," replied Rebecca, although her short-drawn breath seemed to belie the heroism of her accents; "my trust is strong, and I fear thee not."†   (source)
  • "I have the pleasure of being already acquainted, if the countess remembers me," said Prince Andrew with a low and courteous bow quite belying Peronskaya's remarks about his rudeness, and approaching Natasha he held out his arm to grasp her waist before he had completed his invitation.†   (source)
  • …though pure and upright, like all instincts, which creates antipathies and sympathies, which fatally separates one nature from another nature, which does not hesitate, which feels no disquiet, which does not hold its peace, and which never belies itself, clear in its obscurity, infallible, imperious, intractable, stubborn to all counsels of the intelligence and to all the dissolvents of reason, and which, in whatever manner destinies are arranged, secretly warns the man-dog of the…†   (source)
  • Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons, as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which belies that experience, and they are only less young than they were.†   (source)
  • If so, my aspect belies me strangely; for—a great weight being off my mind—I feel in the very heyday of my youth, with the world and my best days before me!†   (source)
  • For, thought Ahab, while even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them, but, at bottom, all heartwoes, a mystic significance, and, in some men, an archangelic grandeur; so do their diligent tracings-out not belie the obvious deduction.†   (source)
  • But no man of earls greater Saw I ever on earth than one of you yonder, The warrior in war-gear: no hall-man, so ween I, Is that weapon-beworthy'd, but his visage belie him, 250 The sight seen once only.†   (source)
  • Their full slow eyes belied the words, the gestures eager and unoffending, but knew the rancours massed about them and knew their zeal was vain.†   (source)
  • With manly mien he stalk'd along the ground, Nor wanted voice belied, nor vaunting sound.†   (source)
  • O! on my soul, my cousin is belied!†   (source)
  • It at all times betrayed an ignorance of the true springs by which human conduct is actuated, and belied the original inducements to the establishment of civil power.†   (source)
  • My soul doth tell me Hero is belied; And that shall Claudio know; so shall the prince, And all of them that thus dishonour her.†   (source)
  • At last, however, she interrupted her, saying, "I never can believe this; some villain hath belied him.†   (source)
  • Agis the Lycian, stepping forth with pride, To single fight the boldest foe defied; Whom Tuscan Valerus by force o'ercame, And not belied his mighty father's fame.†   (source)
  • I say thou hast belied mine innocent child: Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart, And she lied buried with her ancestors; O! in a tomb where never scandal slept, Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villany!†   (source)
  • …name of Sophia as loudly, and in as hoarse a voice, as whilome did Hercules that of Hylas; and, as the poet tells us that the whole shore echoed back the name of that beautiful youth, so did the house, the garden, and all the neighbouring fields resound nothing but the name of Sophia, in the hoarse voices of the men, and in the shrill pipes of the women; while echo seemed so pleased to repeat the beloved sound, that, if there is really such a person, I believe Ovid hath belied her sex.†   (source)
  • BelIer your head off if you want to.†   (source)
  • Or is it that from being a deluder of others he has become at last his own dupe as he is, if report belie him not, his own and his only enjoyer?†   (source)
  • Can the false meekness of this hypocrite Cause you to belie ….†   (source)
  • —We say lie on her when they belie her.†   (source)
  • "Upon my word, sir," cries Sophia, "I must belie my heart wickedly if I did.†   (source)
  • But she conquered all my modesty, and all my fears; and in a little time, by the help of this confederate, I grew as impudent a thief, and as dexterous as ever Moll Cutpurse was, though, if fame does not belie her, not half so handsome.†   (source)
  • If he be slain, say so; The tongue offends not that reports his death: And he doth sin that doth belie the dead, Not he which says the dead is not alive Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office, and his tongue Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd tolling a departing friend.†   (source)
  • —there came a burst, not of sighs, or anything belying his delicacy or good breeding, but of some two dozen stitches in one of his stockings, that made it look like a window-lattice.†   (source)
  • Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him; He never did encounter with Glendower: I tell thee, He durst as well have met the Devil alone As Owen Glendower for an enemy.†   (source)
  • GUARD No man, my lord, should make a vow, for if He ever swears he will not do a thing, His afterthoughts belie his first resolve.†   (source)
  • Dear lad, believe it, For they shall yet belie thy happy years That say thou art a man: Diana's lip Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound, And all is semblative a woman's part.†   (source)
  • Faith, sir, has led the drum before the English tragedians,—to belie him I will not,—and more of his soldiership I know not, except in that country he had the honour to be the officer at a place there called Mile-end to instruct for the doubling of files: I would do the man what honour I can, but of this I am not certain.†   (source)
  • Feels not his gout, nor palsy; feigns himself Younger by scores of years, flatters his age With confident belying it, hopes he may, With charms, like Aeson, have his youth restored: And with these thoughts so battens, as if fate Would be as easily cheated on, as he, And all turns air!†   (source)
  • PER: And, I have heard, they are most lewd impostors; Made all of terms and shreds; no less beliers Of great men's favours, than their own vile med'cines; Which they will utter upon monstrous oaths: Selling that drug for two-pence, ere they part, Which they have valued at twelve crowns before.†   (source)
  • Ye gods below, (Since those above so small compassion show,) Receive a soul unsullied yet with shame, Which not belies my great forefather's name!"†   (source)
  • "Nay, that I cannot guess," said Nightingale, "and if you yourself, and I, who am so heartily your friend, cannot conceive a reason why they should belie you, what reason will an indifferent court of justice be able to assign why they should not believe them?†   (source)
  • Wrapp'd in amaze, the matrons wildly stare: Then Pyrgo, reverenc'd for her hoary hair, Pyrgo, the nurse of Priam's num'rous race: "No Beroe this, tho' she belies her face!†   (source)
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show 6 examples with meaning too rare to warrant focus
  • To Abigail he would later write, "I have been so strangely used in this country, so belied and so undefended that I was determined to say some things as an appeal to posterity."   (source)
    belied = lied about
  • Raffe positions himself between me and Belie!   (source)
    belie = a name
  • He was telling Mr. McAllister about the winter morning when Brother Belie Jones's wife fired up her stove and shut the oven door, not knowing her cat was asleep in there.   (source)
  • Belies wounds won't be healing anytime soon if Raffe is right about angel swords.   (source)
  • Brother Belie Jones didn't give any eulogy, but he asked God to comfort the young widow and raise the baby in the Bosom of the Lamb, and then he read Scriptures for an hour.   (source)
  • Brother Belie Jones, the Baptist preacher, said God just wasn't ready to take her Home, praise Jesus, or else He had something more for her to do here before she passed into the Great Beyond.   (source)
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