defy
verbnouncommon in dialogue
- //dɪˈfaɪ//
To challenge (someone) or brave (a hazard or opposition).
verb
- 1
To challenge (someone) or brave (a hazard or opposition).
to defy an enemy; to defy the power of a magistrate; to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy public opinion
I once again / Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight.
"So you actually think yours is good-looking?" sneered the Baker. "Why, I could make a better-looking one out of a piece of dough." "I defy you to," the Hansom-driver replied. "A face like mine is not easily copied. Nor am I the only person of that opinion. All the ladies think that I am beautiful. And of course I go by what they think."
- 2
To refuse to obey.
If you defy your teacher you may end up in detention.
Before coalition forces arrived, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered its own citizens, threatened its neighbors, and defied the world.
British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.
- 3
To not conform to or follow a pattern, set of rules or expectations.
By tossing this nineteenth electron back and forth between its own orbit and that of its lost companion more than twenty-five thousand times a second, a mutilated stone atom is able partially to defy gravity and thus successfully to ride the emerging streams of light and energy, the sunbeams, to liberty and adventure.
“To be determined,” Kane said, “is whether Griner and her towering skill and engaging personality will defy the odds and attract corporate sponsors as part of widespread public acceptance four decades after passage of the gender-equity legislation known as Title IX.”
- 4
obsoleteTo renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.
1603-1625, Beaumont and Fletcher For thee I have defied my constant mistress.
Dear perfum'd jackets, pennyless breeches; / Dutch flapdragons, healths in urine; / Drabs that keep a man too sure in: / I do defy you all. / Lend me each honest hand, for here I rise / A reclaim'd man, loathing the general vice.
Etymology
From Old French desfier, from Vulgar Latin *disfidare (“renounce one's faith”), from Latin dis- (“away”) + fidus (“faithful”). Meaning shifted in the 14th century from "be disloyal" to "challenge". Contrast confide, fidelity, faith.
noun
- 1
obsoleteA challenge.
And, safe intrench'd within, her foes without defies
Forms
- plural
- defies
- past tense
- defied
- past participle
- defied
- present participle
- defying
- third person singular
- defies
defy · To challenge (someone) or brave (a hazard or opposition).
degenerate · Having deteriorated, degraded or fallen from normal,…degrading · Causing or likely to cause someone to feel degraded.degree · A completed curriculum of study in tertiary education.