As per cambridge online dict. belie means to represent something falsely or to hide something:
example: His gruff manner belied a gentle personality. But i do not get the true meaning of this sentence. Does it mean that the person is basically gentle but his manner is gruff. if it is true, how it is possible? does a gentle person has gruff manner, in general? or the meaning is that his gruff manner contradicted with his gentle personality, in the past (belied, not belies) at a specific time, which was unusual as he is normally gentle.
I know that belie means to misrepresent (hide) something. e.g. his smile belies his anger. but here in this case , in the above example, I am confused.
The sentence says that the person is of a gentle nature although his manners are rather blunt. Thus, the manners hide his true nature since by looking only at them one is tempted to conclude that the person has a hoarse personality (which is, however, not true).
well, in that case, if your manner is gruff, how can i define your personality as gentle? it can be that in certain cases or in a certain situation your manner is gruff, but if you are always like that, how you are gentle?
For example, a person could not have very refined eating habits but still be very kind at a personal level.
I don’t get you man. what eating habit has to do with having gruff manner?
I don’t know why you call me man… it could be interpreted as slightly offensive… I’m just trying to help. Manner can denote a lot of different things…
don’t be offended please, I assumed that you were a guy. so I called you man. I appreciate your help, but still I am unable to understand your logic of explaining belie.
I’m not offended, and certainly not because you assumed that I’m a guy. Yet calling somebody “man” or “dude” whom you really don’t know, could be seen as rather “blunt” or, to use our example, “gruff”. However, I should not conclude from this lack of finesse that you have, for instance, a bad temper. Maybe this example helps.
what you assume might be true in your culture, but not in mine.So I am sorry to disagree with you. You might be squeamish but all people are not like that. We are here to help each other, not teaching others about delicacy. So if you can’t help, kindly ignore my post.
‘His gruff manner always belied a kindness in him that all his close friends knew he had.’
