How to Use lie behind in a Sentence

lie behind

phrasal verb
Definition of lie behindnext
  • What makes the film enduring is not so much the romance as the shadow that lies behind it.
    — Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 1 Sep. 2023
  • Wednesday's figures give a breakdown of what lies behind the increase in ill health.
    — Fox News, 26 July 2023
  • In financial terms, Hume’s work lay behind the maxim that past performance is not a guide to the future.
    — Natallie Rocha, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 June 2023
  • Several lines lie behind it, stretching for many miles.
    — Karolina Hird, Time, 3 Aug. 2023
  • To his friend Lucilius, Seneca wrote that every year and every experience that lay behind us was already in the grip of death.
    — Tom Bissell, Harper's Magazine, 10 Apr. 2023
  • Hockney, also naked, lies behind him reading the paper.
    — George Nelson, ARTnews.com, 28 June 2024
  • Why is Towne and Terrace being razed? Crime and the level of disrepair lie behind the city's decision to raze the complex, officials said.
    — Claire Rafford, The Indianapolis Star, 28 Apr. 2023
  • Behavior like that lies behind the bear-in-the-kitchen stuff of storybooks: Paddington with his jar of marmalade, Pooh and his cupboard stocked with pots of honey, the Teddy bears’ picnic.
    — Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023
  • But no major study digs into the actual rate of side effects among females, or what might lie behind such differences.
    — Maggie Fox, TIME, 5 Apr. 2024
  • Thankfully McGee realizes the answer actually lies behind the team, and one of the framed photos swings open to reveal Ducky’s junk drawer.
    — Sara Netzley, EW.com, 20 Feb. 2024
  • The poodle lay behind Jeffrey during an ab portion, preventing his movements, to the laughter and relief of the participants.
    — Lauren Oyler, Harper's Magazine, 10 Apr. 2023
  • But the brilliant minutes before sunset — Washington’s final sunset of an astronomical summer — spoke of the light and the times that lay behind us.
    — Martin Weil, Washington Post, 23 Sep. 2023
  • Crane Point Museum & Nature Center lies behind a wall of tropical trees along the island's central thoroughfare.
    — Caroline Rogers, Southern Living, 30 June 2023
  • The findings underscored the fragility of the cloud systems that lie behind an increasing proportion of software operations.
    — Joseph Menn, Washington Post, 22 July 2023
  • Twelve guest suites lie behind the library, across more interconnected pathways winding through trees with monkeys dangling from their branches, scattered with artworks.
    — Rooksana Hossenally, Forbes, 6 May 2023
  • Backyard breeding, where people breed dogs without the experience or knowledge to do so safely and responsibly, often lies behind such sad tales.
    — Nadia Scharf, The Indianapolis Star, 9 July 2024
  • If mate recognition lay behind a species-level difference between Neanderthals and moderns, the Levantine paradox can finally be put to rest.
    — James Shreeve, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
  • More and more democracies also look like Ukraine—where popular ideals make certain compromises abhorrent—and this intransigence lies behind many of the West’s twenty-first-century wars, including the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
    — Christopher Blattman, Foreign Affairs, 29 Nov. 2022
  • While the phrase is still outside the political mainstream, the idea lies behind the land acknowledgments — which recognize and name the Indigenous inhabitants of places — that have become commonplace across universities and cultural institutions.
    — Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times, 22 Jan. 2024
  • As a foundational technology, AI will be critical in the race for innovation power, lying behind countless future developments in drug discovery, gene therapy, material science, and clean energy—and in AI itself.
    — Eric Schmidt, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023
  • But the United States has not significantly expanded its nuclear forces, conventional missile stockpiles, or homeland missile defense systems in recent years, suggesting that additional factors lie behind Xi’s decision to embrace nuclear expansion.
    — Tong Zhao, Foreign Affairs, 3 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lie behind.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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