give the lie to

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English

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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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.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 103, line 84:
      As you like this, give me the lie another time.
    • 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.
    • 2011 July 18, John Cassidy, “Mastering the Machine”, in The New Yorker[1], →ISSN:
      The bet against Treasuries gave the lie to a criticism sometimes made of Dalio—that he is basically a bond-market investor, who has benefitted from a twenty-year rally in bonds.

Synonyms

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Translations

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