English

Noun

defy ‎(plural defies)

1. (obsolete) A challenge.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Translations

Verb

defy ‎(third-person singular simple present defies, present participle defying, simple past and past participle defied)

1. To 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.

2. To challenge (someone) to do something difficult or impossible.

   to defy an enemy;   to defy the power of a magistrate;   to defy the arguments of an opponent;   to defy public opinion‎

   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

     I once again / Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight.

   • 1900, Edith King Hall, Adventures in Toyland Chapter 6

     "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."

3. To refuse to obey.

   If you defy your teacher you will get the strap.‎

   • 2005, George W. Bush, Presidential Radio Address - 19 March 2005

     Before coalition forces arrived, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered its own citizens, threatened its neighbors, and defied the world.

   • 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     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.

4. To not conform to or follow a pattern or certain set of rules.
   • 1955, Anonymous, The Urantia Book Paper 41

     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.

   • 2013, Jeré Longman in the New York Times, W.N.B.A. Hopes Griner Can Change Perceptions, as Well as Game Itself

     “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.”

Derived terms

• death-defying

Translations

Related terms

• defiance
• defiant

Anagrams

• yfed