defy

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   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

2. 2
   verb

   To refuse to obey.

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

3. 3
   verb

   To not conform to or follow a pattern, set of rules or expectations.

   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. 4
   verb

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   A challenge.

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

6. 6
   verb

   challenge

7. 7
   verb

   resist or confront with resistance

8. 8
   verb

   elude, especially in a baffling way

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.