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Lying vs Lain - What's the difference?

lying | lain |

As a verb lying

is .

As a noun lying

is an act of telling a lie, or falsehood.

As an adjective lain is

.

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?

    lain

    English

    Etymology 1

    Inflected forms.

    Verb

    (head)
  • (oriented in a horizontal position, situated).
    • He had lain there for many hours.
    The book had lain on the attic floor until it was found decades later.
    Usage notes
    * The past participle of is lied. * The past participle of is laid.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To conceal, keep quiet about.
  • *:
  • *:Also broder sir Agrauayne and sir mordred in lyke wyse sir Launcelot rescowed yow bothe and thre score and two from sir Turquyn / Me thynketh broder suche kynde dedes and kyndenes shold be remembryd / doo as ye lyst sayd syr Agrauayne for I wylle layne it no lenger

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