defy
Etymology
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Etymology
From Old French desfier, from Vulgar Latin *disfidare, from Latin dis- + fidus ("faithful").
Pronunciation- IPA: /dɪˈfaɪ/
defy (defies, present participle defying; simple past and past participle defied)
- (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."
- (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.
- 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.
- (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.
- 1603-1625, Beaumont and Fletcher
- German: herausfordern, die Stirn bieten (fig.), entgegentreten
- Italian: sfidare
- Portuguese: desafiar
- Spanish: desafiar
- French: défier
- German: herausfordern
- Italian: sfidare
- Portuguese: desafiar
- Russian: броса́ть вы́зов
- Spanish: desafiar
- French: désobéir à
- German: trotzen, widersetzen (reflexive), querstellen (reflexive / coll.)
- Portuguese: desobedecer
- Spanish: desobedecer
- German: widersetzen (reflexive)
- German: lossagen (reflexive), abschwören
- Italian: abiurare
- Portuguese: renunciar
- Russian: пренебрега́ть
- Spanish: renunciar, desafiar
defy (plural defies)
- (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
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