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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

lie at someone's door en · VERB

Etymology

Compare lay at someone's door.

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be the fault or responsibility of someone.
    • Appointed foreign minister in 2004, he has since then through successive US administrations developed a Putinesque revulsion for all western ideas, if not all western consumer durables. At one point, he said all the ills of the 20th century colonialism, two world wars and the cold war lay at the door of American arrogance. 2022 November 15, Patrick Wintour, “Sergei Lavrov, a fixture of Russian diplomacy facing his toughest test in Ukraine”, in The Guardian:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
lying at someone's door Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
lay at someone's door Tense=Past lexicographic
lain at someone's door Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
lies at someone's door Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic

Relateds

lay at someone's door · at someone's door