Defy
[dɪ'faɪ] or ['difaɪ]
Definition
(verb.) challenge; 'I dare you!'.
(verb.) resist or confront with resistance; 'The politician defied public opinion'; 'The new material withstands even the greatest wear and tear'; 'The bridge held'.
(verb.) elude, especially in a baffling way; 'This behavior defies explanation'.
Typed by Hiram--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.
(v. t.) To provoke to combat or strife; to call out to combat; to challenge; to dare; to brave; to set at defiance; to treat with contempt; as, to defy an enemy; to defy the power of a magistrate; to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy public opinion.
(n.) A challenge.
Checker: Marty
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Challenge, dare, bid defiance to, hurl defiance at.[2]. Brave, disregard, slight, scorn, spurn, despise, contemn, treat with contempt, trample on, set at naught, snap the fingers at.
Editor: Vince
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Scorn, challenge, provoke, despite, brave,[See DARE]
Checker: Mandy
Definition
v.t. to challenge: to brave: (obs.) to discard dislike:—pr.p. defy′ing; pa.p. defied′.—n. (Dryden) a defiance.—n. Defī′er.
Inputed by Hodge
Examples
- Don't defy him! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I leave twenty pound a year to my valet; and I defy any man after I have gone to find anything against my character. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I spit at thee, and I defy thee. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- A weed like the Russian thistle, for instance, will defy all usual means for its extermination. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- I am ready to defy Issus herself; but what will it avail us? Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- I think, replied Edward, that I may defy many months to produce any good to me. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- But the example of Sparta, and perhaps in some degree the tendency to defy public opinion, seems to have misled him. Plato. The Republic.
- The powers they defied; But Heaven is just, and by a god they died. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- I, in my stiff- necked rebellion, almost cursed the dispensation: instead of bending to the decree, I defied it. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Flesh or spirit must be defied for its sake. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Tarzan defied them all, and the thin, strong noose continued to settle about Tublat's neck whenever he least expected it. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- How the dreadless Angel defied, resisted, and repelled? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- To this mortal quarrel he has himself defied me, and I shall not forget the challenge. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- They were warlike little nations and defied, in those days, governments that overshadow them now as mountains overshadow molehills. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing looking out of it, defying me, with more than courage--with a stern triumph. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- I am looked upon about here as a second Ajax defying the lightning. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- How could he dream of her defying the barrier that her husband had placed between them? George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He came back gay and self-satisfied, eager and busy, caring nothing for Miss Woodhouse, and defying Miss Smith. Jane Austen. Emma.
- Is it fair, is it worthy of yourself, to talk of my defying you afore ever you say what you want of me? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I hope everybody here will lead them to believe that I died defying them, consistently and perseveringly, as I did through so many years. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Others said the _Clermont_ appeared at night like a monster moving on the waters defying the winds and tide, and breathing flames and smoke. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Stilbro' Moor, however, defies you, thank Heaven! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- It not only defies explanation, it's even beyond conjecture. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Moreover it defies control. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Edited by Lester