defy

English

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈfaɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ

Verb

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

1. (transitive) 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

   • 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."

2. (transitive) To refuse to obey.

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

   • 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.

3. To not conform to or follow a pattern, set of rules or expectations.
   • 1955, anonymous author, 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, “W.N.B.A. Hopes Griner Can Change Perceptions, as Well as Game Itself”, in New York Times:

     “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. (transitive, obsolete) 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.

   • c. 1605 (first performance; 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:

     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.

     The spelling has been modernized.

Derived terms

• death-defying

Related terms

• defiance
• defiant

Translations

Noun

defy (plural defies)

1. (obsolete) A challenge.
   • 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:

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

Translations

Anagrams

• yfed