From Old French desfier, from Vulgar Latin *disfidare, from Latin dis- + fidus ("faithful").

• IPA: /dɪˈfaɪ/

defy (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.

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.

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.

• defiance
• defiant

• 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)

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