defy

present singular third person defies · participle present defying · participle past defied · past defied

1. transitiveTo 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

   2 more examples

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

   1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

   "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."

   1900, Edith King Hall, Adventures in Toyland Chapter 6

2. transitiveTo refuse to obey.

   If you defy your teacher you may end up in detention.

   2 more examples

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

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

   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.

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

3. To not conform to or follow a pattern, set of rules or expectations.

   “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.”

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1955, anonymous author, The Urantia Book, Paper 41

4. obsoletetransitiveTo 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.

   1 more example

   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.

   c. 1604–1606 (date written; published 1608), Thomas Middleton, “A Trick to Catch the Old One”, in A[rthur] H[enry] Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton […] (The English Dramatists), volume II, London: John C. Nimmo […], published 1885, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 352

plural defies

1. obsoleteA challenge.

   And, safe intrench'd within, her foes without defies

   1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC