- a statement made by somebody knowing that it is not true
- to tell a lie
- The whole story is nothing but a pack of lies.
- That's an outright lie!
- a barefaced/bald-faced/blatant lie (= a lie that is deliberate and shocking)
- lie about somebody/something How dare you spread such vicious lies about other people?
- He said he would not respond to the lies about his war record.
- lie about doing something an elaborate lie about being attacked by two masked men
Extra Examples- She told a big fat lie!
- He told a whopping great lie!
- How could she swallow such a blatant lie?
- That's a downright lie!
- That's a lie—I never said that!
- a web of elaborate lies
- As usual, the party's leaflet is full of barefaced lies.
- I couldn't tell her a lie.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- big
- big fat
- great
- …
- be
- tell (somebody)
- believe
- …
- detector
- a pack of lies
- a tissue of lies
- a web of lies
- …
Word OriginOld English lyge (noun), lēogan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch liegen and German lügen.
Idioms
See lie in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee lie in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishgive the lie to something
- (formal) to show that something is not true
- These new figures give the lie to the belief that unemployment is going down.
I tell a lie
- (British English, informal) used to say that something you have just said is not true or correct
- We first met in 2006, no, I tell a lie, it was 2007.
live a lie
- to keep something important about yourself a secret from other people, so that they do not know what you really think, what you are really like, etc.
- He lived a lie for thirty years, ‘married’ to two women.
a tissue of lies
- (literary) a story, an excuse, etc. that is full of lies
Check pronunciation:
lie2