defy
verb /dɪˈfaɪ/
/dɪˈfaɪ/
Word Family
- defy verb
- defiance noun
- defiant adjective
Verb Forms
Idioms | present simple I / you / we / they defy | /dɪˈfaɪ/ /dɪˈfaɪ/ |
| he / she / it defies | /dɪˈfaɪz/ /dɪˈfaɪz/ |
| past simple defied | /dɪˈfaɪd/ /dɪˈfaɪd/ |
| past participle defied | /dɪˈfaɪd/ /dɪˈfaɪd/ |
| -ing form defying | /dɪˈfaɪɪŋ/ /dɪˈfaɪɪŋ/ |
- defy somebody/something to refuse to obey or show respect for somebody in authority, a law, a rule, etc.
- I wouldn't have dared to defy my teachers.
- Hundreds of people today defied the ban on political gatherings.
Extra ExamplesTopics Permission and obligationc1- He is willing to defy his own party.
- Journalists were openly defying the authorities.
- The protesters continued to defy a court injunction.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- openly
- be prepared to
- be willing to
- continue to
- …
- defy belief, explanation, description, etc. to be impossible or almost impossible to believe, explain, describe, etc.
- a political move that defies explanation
- The beauty of the scene defies description.
- His face was so odd that it defies description.
- defy something to successfully resist something to a very unusual degree
- The baby boy defied all the odds and survived (= stayed alive when it seemed certain that he would die).
Word OriginMiddle English (in the senses ‘renounce an allegiance’ and ‘challenge to combat’): from Old French desfier, based on Latin dis- (expressing reversal) + fidus ‘faithful’.
Idioms
I defy you/anyone to do something
- used to say that somebody should try to do something, as a way of emphasizing that you think it is impossible to do it
- I defy anyone not to cry at the end of the film.
- I defy you to leave without buying something.