defiant
Etymology
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Etymology
Borrowed from French défiant, from the verb défier.
Pronunciation Adjectivedefiant
- Defying.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:
- She paused and took a defiant breath. ‘If you don't believe me, I can't help it. But I'm not a liar.’ ¶ ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’
- Boldly resisting opposition.
- German: keck, frech, trotzig
- Italian: insolente, spavaldo, provocatorio
- Portuguese: desafiador
- Russian: непоко́рный
- Spanish: desafiante
- German: trotzig
- Italian: ribelle, apertamente disobbediente
- Russian: непоко́рный
- Spanish: fresco, contestatario
defiant (plural defiants)
- One who defies opposition.
- 1966, British Broadcasting Corporation. Monitoring Service, Summary of World Broadcasts: Non-Arab Africa (issues 2262-2303)
- Countries condemning South Africa, Portugal and Rhodesia still find it necessary to trade with these defiants against so-called world opinion.
- John Michael Doris, Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior (page 48)
- Damn the obedients and hail the defiants if you will; the experiment does not motivate confidence about how particular subjects would behave in markedly dissimilar situations.
- 1966, British Broadcasting Corporation. Monitoring Service, Summary of World Broadcasts: Non-Arab Africa (issues 2262-2303)
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
