lie at someone's door

lie at someone's door

English

Etymology

Compare lay at someone's door.

Verb

lie 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)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To be the fault or responsibility of someone.
   • 2022 November 15, Patrick Wintour, “Sergei Lavrov, a fixture of Russian diplomacy facing his toughest test in Ukraine”, in The Guardian‎:

     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.

Related terms

• at someone's door
• lay at someone's door

 

Further reading

• “lie at someone's door”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.