# bald faced lie

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 6, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781 "2004-10-06T02:05:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781/1 "2004-10-06T02:05:37Z")

</div>

Someone mentioned this.  
Where did it come from?  
Why not a hairy faced lie?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781/2 "2004-10-06T02:17:24Z")

</div>

I always thought it was “bold faced lie”, meaning the person lied boldly with a straight face.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Keapon\_Laffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e274bd/32.png) [@Keapon\_Laffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keapon_Laffin)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781/3 "2004-10-06T02:19:42Z")

</div>

Umm, maybe because you can see through it.

All the hair probably covers up the truth?  
:rolleyes:

Great… now I’m going to spend the next 2 hours pondering…  
:smack:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781/4 "2004-10-06T02:23:08Z")

</div>

I figured it meant that the person saying it was doing so blatantly and making no attempt to cover their actions. ‘bare-faced lie’ might be a better descriptor.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781/5 "2004-10-06T02:27:54Z")

</div>

> [@Sublight](#):
>
> I figured it meant that the person saying it was doing so blatantly and making no attempt to cover their actions. ‘bare-faced lie’ might be a better descriptor.

\*\*Bare-faced \*\* lie is how I’ve generally heard the phrase.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781/6 "2004-10-06T02:53:03Z")

</div>

“bald faced lie” gets about 8000 hits on google  
“bold faced lie” gets just under 4000  
“bare faced lie” gets a measly 680

For what its worth

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bald-faced-lie/267781/7 "2004-10-06T03:34:13Z")

</div>

I was positive that “bold-faced” was correct, but [Yahoo’s](http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entries/33/b0373300.html) [dictionary](http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entries/82/b0038200.html) lists both “bold” and “bald.” Hm.