What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Lurk vs Belie - What's the difference?

lurk | belie |

As verbs the difference between lurk and belie

is that lurk is to remain concealed in order to ambush while belie is (obsolete) to lie around; encompass or belie can be to tell lies about; to slander.

As a noun lurk

is the act of lurking.

lurk

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To remain concealed in order to ambush.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Travels and travails , passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}
  • To remain unobserved.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • Thus my plight was evil indeed, for I had nothing now to burn to give me light, and knew that 'twas no use setting to grout till I could see to go about it. Moreover, the darkness was of that black kind that is never found beneath the open sky, no, not even on the darkest night, but lurks in close and covered places and strains the eyes in trying to see into it.
  • To hang out or wait around a location, preferably without drawing attention to oneself.
  • * 2005 , (Plato), Sophist . Translation by Lesley Brown. .
  • if we find the sophist lurking , we must round him up by royal command of the argument
  • (Internet) To view an internet forum without posting comments.
  • Derived terms

    * lurker

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of lurking.
  • * 1921 : George Colby Borley, The Lost Horizon
  • There were enemies on the lurk and time was against him.
  • * 1955 : John Maxwell Edmonds Longus, Daphnis et Chloe
  • ... barked furiously and made at him as at a wolf, and before he could wholly rise from the lurk because of the sudden consternation, ...
  • * 2004 : Charles Reade, A Simpleton
  • At two PM a man had called on him, and had produced one of his advertisements, and had asked him if that was all square—no bobbies on the lurk .

    belie

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) belyen, beliggen, from (etyl) belicgan, . Cognate with German beliegen.

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To lie around; encompass.
  • (transitive, obsolete, of an army) To surround; beleaguer.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) belyen, .

    Verb

  • To tell lies about; to slander.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him.
  • To give a false representation of, to misrepresent.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts.
  • *, II.2.6.iv:
  • He found it by experience, and made good use of it in his own person, if Plutarch belie him not […].
  • To contradict, to show (something) to be false.
  • * Dryden
  • Their trembling hearts belie their boastful tongues.
    Her obvious nervousness belied what she said.
  • To be shown false by contradicting (something) that is true; to conceal the contradictory or ironic presence of (something).
  • * 2013 , Elizabeth Koh, "Fighting Pest, Farmers Find Strange Ally: A Drought," New York Times, August 31, 2013
  • The rosy outlook belies a struggle to achieve statewide eradication that has persisted since the insect first crossed the border from Mexico around 1892.
    His calm demeanor belied his inner sense of guilt.
  • To show, evince, demonstrate: to show (something) to be present, particularly something deemed contradictory or ironic.
  • * 1993 , Carol A. Mossman, Politics and Narratives of Birth: Gynocolonization from Rousseau to Zola , Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-41586-6, page 28:
  • A host of evidence is adduced by the accused, evidence whose sometimes self-contradictory nature belies a certain desperation.
  • (obsolete) To mimic; to counterfeit.
  • (Dryden)
  • (obsolete) To fill with lies.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The breath of slander doth belie all corners of the world.
    Synonyms
    * (to give a false representation) misrepresent * (to tell lies about) calumniate * (to contradict or show to be false) contradict, give lie to, give the lie to