lie at someone's door

verb

To be the fault or responsibility of someone.

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Meanings

verblie at someone's door (third-person singular simple present lies at someone's door, present participle lying at someone's door, simple past lay at someone's door, past participle lain at someone's door)

present singular third person lies at someone's door · participle present lying at someone's door · past lay at someone's door · participle past lain at someone's door

  1. idiomaticintransitiveTo be the fault or responsibility of someone.
    1 more example

    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

Origin

Compare lay at someone's door.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

lie at someone's door. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lie%20at%20someone's%20door

MLA

“lie at someone's door.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lie%20at%20someone's%20door. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lie at someone's door,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lie%20at%20someone's%20door.

Source: lie at someone's door on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.