false witness
7
6.9
- noun
:
falso testigo
- We should not bear false witness against our neighbors.
- to bear false witness
Don't kill, don't bear false witness, all those sorts of things, right?
- Don't kill, don't bear false witness, all those sorts of things, right?
- Don't bear false witness against your neighbor.
- And he says that false witness can include hiding the truth, right?
- This is this is one that leads to a lot of different things he says, leads to lying, to deceit, to false witness.
Examples
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The judge warned that anyone who serves as a false witness could face serious legal consequences.
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One of the commandments of my faith is that we shall not bear false witness against any man.
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I refused to bear false witness against him.
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Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Blog text (16) -
The ninth commandment says: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."
Academic text (1999) -
The lawyer argued that the defendant had acted as a false witness during the trial.
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During the proceeding, they exposed him as a false witness who provided misleading testimony.
Synonyms
707
1.0
A person who often says things that are not true
8
9.9
A person who often lies and makes up stories to impress or trick people
4
9.0
A person who lies under oath in court
1
9.9
A person who often avoids telling the truth and gives unclear answers
How Truthful
7
6.9
- Formal
4
9.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person who deliberately gives untrue testimony' is directly and compositionally derived from 'false' (not true) modifying 'witness' (a person who testifies). This adjectival-noun combination follows a standard, cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
False witness comes from the Bible phrase 'do not bear false witness', which warned people not to lie about others in court or in the community. In that old scene a witness was someone who told what they had seen and false meant 'not true', so a false witness is a person who says untrue things in court and today it still means someone who lies in court.