mendaciousadj.

1616 R. Sheldon Suruey Miracles Church of Rome 63 A mendacious Legend of Ignatius his miracles.

1654 A. Cokayne tr. G. F. Loredano Dianea iv. 266 Fame, that mixing Truth with Falshood, renders the one and the other equally mendacious.

1698 J. Butler (title) Explanatory Notes upon a Mendacious Libel, called Concubinage and Poligamy disproved; written by a nameless author in answer to a book writ by J. B.

1751 T. Cooke Ode on Powers Poetry vii. 13 Of Minds disturb'd not by the impious Train..The Tongue mendacious, and the Boaster vain.

1799 G. Huddesford Bubble & Squeak 39 Strait-hair'd Sectaries uncivil And Whigs mendacious, who speak evil Of Dignities and Dignitaries.

1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes i. 11 [The Pagan ages] were not mendacious and distracted, but in their own poor way true and sane!

1885 Truth 28 May 838/1 The..mendacious garbage that is being published in the Nouvelle Revue.

1935 ‘E. Queen’ Spanish Cape Myst. xvi. 314 He admitted that his first story—about having killed Kidd in a fight yesterday evening on the boat—had been mendacious.

1988 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Apr. 350/2 A great line of poetry, albeit by a mendacious fascist, will outlast, ousting the best of humilities, the most sanctified of good deeds.

1626 J. Wilson Song 4 Mendoz' mendaciously begun, in France to giue it out.

1827 J. Bentham Rationale Judicial Evid. I. ii. x. 544 The supposed mendaciously-disposed witness.

1987 ‘A. T. Ellis’ Clothes in Wardrobe 103 No Englishman would have boasted mendaciously of killing a cat.

2006 A. Everitt Augustus (2007) xxiv. 317 It is possible that the story..was..invented and disseminated by..populist agitators, to suggest mendaciously that Augustus did mean to designate Postumus as his true heir.

1829 New Monthly Mag. 26 157 The hardy mendaciousness which asserts impossibilities, and defies public reproof.

1920 Scribner's Mag. Aug. 198/1 It was evident from Jenny's confused attempt to make excuses,..that not only was she unaccustomed to the mendaciousness of polite society [etc.].

2005 R. Terdiman Body & Story iv. 108 Here we have..a gratuitous lie about lying itself—mendaciousness squared.