live a lie
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to pretend something untrue about oneself
Literally: to have an existence that is false
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The person beset by fears and anxieties who nevertheless manages to present a confident exterior will often feel self - contempt because he feels that he is living a lie and that one day someone will catch him out.
It seems a logical thing to say if you fancy climbing a Munro, but apparently we are living a lie.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “live a lie” mean?
to pretend something untrue about oneself Literally: to have an existence that is false
Is “live a lie” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.