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Deceit vs Lying - What's the difference?

deceit | lying |

As nouns the difference between deceit and lying

is that deceit is an act or practice intended to deceive; a trick while lying is an act of telling a lie, or falsehood.

As a verb lying is

.

deceit

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • An act or practice intended to deceive; a trick
    • The whole conversation was merely a deceit .
  • An act of deceiving someone
  • * {{quote-book, year=1998, author=Mike Dixon-Kennedy, title=Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, page=125, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=2U7okUE3PIcC&pg=PA125
    • , passage=Upon his return he killed Eriphyle for her vanity and deceit of him and his father. }}
  • (uncountable) The state of being deceitful or deceptive
  • * {{quote-book, year=1611, title=King James Bible, chapter=Psalms 10:7
    • , passage=His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.}}
  • (legal) The tort or fraudulent representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth and with intent to induce reliance on it; the plaintiff justifiably relies on the deception, to his injury.

    • Synonyms

    * (act or behavior intended to deceive) trick, fraud * (act of deceiving) deception, trickery * (state of being deceptive) underhandedness, deceptiveness, deceitfulness, dissimulation, fraudulence, trickery * See also

    Derived terms

    * deceitful

    lying

    English

    (wikipedia lying)

    Verb

    (head)
  • * 1811 , , Sense and Sensibility The Free Library , Chapter 19:
    • Without shutting herself up from her family ... or lying awake the whole night to indulge meditation, Elinor found every day afforded her leisure enough to think of Edward..

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of telling a lie, or falsehood.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • The act of one who lies, or keeps low to the ground.
  • * Saint Augustine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms
    • But whom could the lyings in wait of the human heart escape?