lie about

Related to lie about: lie in wait, lying low, giving the lie

lie about

1. To tell a falsehood or mistruth about (something). I know you spent the money, I just don't understand why you feel you need to lie about it to me. While a bit of embellishment is all right, never lie about your experience on a résumé.
2. To recline or loiter lazily; to loaf. You can't just lie about here all summer long. Either find a job and start paying rent, or find somewhere else to live. My friends and I always loved lying about at the lake near our neighborhood when we were kids.
3. To be placed or located in a haphazard or careless location or position. Usually used in the continuous tense. You can't leave such sensitive information lying about—someone could see it who's not meant to. Why are all these boxes lying about? Someone could trip over them!
See also: lie
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

lie about someone or something (to someone)

to say something untrue about someone or something to someone. I wouldn't lie about my boss to anyone! I wouldn't lie about anything like that!
See also: lie

lie about

 
1. [for someone] to recline lazily somewhere. She just lay about through her entire vacation. Don't lie about all the time. Get busy.
2. [for something] to be located somewhere casually and carelessly, perhaps for a long time. This hammer has been lying about for a week. Put it away! Why are all these dirty dishes lying about?
See also: lie
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • lie to (one)
  • don't give me that line
  • don't give me that story
  • don't hand me that line
  • don't hand me that story
  • a lie has no legs
  • ask me no questions, (and) I'll tell you no lies
  • ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies
  • ask no questions and hear no lies
  • let sleeping dogs lie
References in periodicals archive
While presidents did not generally find it necessary to lie about their sex life, they often found it essential to lie about their health.
Sex, lies & presidents: Clinton's not the first president to shade the truth
In Ghosts," he details the life of a woman who keeps secret a lie about her deceased husband.(35) For almost twenty years, she covers his lies of infidelity until the truth finally comes out in the form of insanity from a syphilis infection to her son, and a reckoning of the maid as her husband's daughter.
Lies, deception, and public relations
Children believe if they have done something wrong they are bad, and they want to be good so they lie about it.
Encouraging child honesty
In this study, participants were prepared to lie about a prepared and practiced scenario that may have caused habituation.
Cognitive and emotional correlates of different types of deception
It may be true that liars are more likely than truth-tellers to lie about how often they lie, but some truth-tellers may see their own transparent honesty as a rather wimpish trait and therefore try to look macho by claiming to be lying more often than they really do.
Hopelessly naive..
A quarter - rising to a UK-wide high of 29pc in Wales - even admitted they would lie about taking contraception if they wanted a child and their partner did not.
Women do tell lies - honest
There is the early-20th-century short story by Sherwood Anderson, "I'm a Fool," in which a young swain loses the girl of his dreams by telling her a lie about his origins.
Lies and Literature