Other forms: belies, belied, belying
To belie is to give a false impression of something. Her smile belied her fear, the figures belie the claim, belie its age.
It has two nearly opposite uses, since something can belie the truth by hiding it or belie a claim by showing it false. The word contains lie, which is a useful reminder of what it does.
1verbbelieTo give a false impression of something.
“Her calm smile belied the panic she felt inside.”
belie is a misrepresenting.
beLIE → the face that LIEs about what is underneath
The calm face lies about the panic underneath it.
hooks ontolie
Old English beliogan means to deceive by lying, from be- plus leogan, to lie.
Proto-Germanic
*biligjaną — to lie around
Proto-West Germanic
*biliggjan
Old English
beliċġan
Middle English
belyen
English, today
belie
Built from
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 + lie.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA