defy
Americanverb (used with object)
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defies,
present (3rd person singular)
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defied,
past participle, past
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defying
present participle
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to challenge the power of; resist boldly or openly.
Love drives the characters to ignore their family feud and defy parental authority.
The artist defies conventional categories by blending very different styles in her work.
-
to offer effective resistance to; make virtually impossible.
Their strategic position is helped by having a fort that defies attack.
The facts were so complex that they defied simple explanation.
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to challenge (a person) to do something deemed impossible.
They defied him to dive off the bridge.
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Archaic. to challenge to a combat or contest.
noun
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defies
plural
verb
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to resist (a powerful person, authority, etc) openly and boldly
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to elude, esp in a baffling way
his actions defy explanation
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formal to challenge or provoke (someone to do something judged to be impossible); dare
I defy you to climb that cliff
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archaic to invite to do battle or combat
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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defiernoun
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predefyverb (used with object)
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redefyverb (used with object)
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defiableadjective
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undefiableadjective
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defyinglyadverb
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undefiablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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defysimple
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defiessimple
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have defiedperfect
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has defiedperfect
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am defyingprogressive
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are defyingprogressive
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is defyingprogressive
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have been defyingperfect progressive
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has been defyingperfect progressive
Past
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defiedsimple
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had defiedperfect
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was defyingprogressive
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were defyingprogressive
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had been defyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of defy
First recorded in 1250–1300; from Middle English defien, Old French desfier, from des- dis- 1 + fier “to trust” (from Vulgar Latin fīdāre (unrecorded), from Latin fīdere; cf. fidelity ( def. ))
Explanation
To defy is to openly refuse to do something. You can defy the no-costumes-in-class rule if you wear your fairy wings to school, but just don’t try to defy the laws of gravity unless you can actually fly. If you deliberately break a rule or ignore an order, you defy, or resist, that rule. The word defy comes from the Latin word disfidare for "renounce one's faith." So if you're expected to be faithful to a certain law or rule but you refuse to be, you defy it. There are different ways to defy — defy your parents by staying out past curfew, or defy common sense by walking in with shoes on your head.
Vocabulary lists containing defy
The Cay
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I Am Malala
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Calls to defy the bans on protests in the city centre had circulated on social media.
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026
Those expectations at the moment are so low as to defy measurement.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
Spending continues to defy expectations and consumers still demonstrate an ability to navigate higher inflation and interest rates.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
It will certainly defy the odds and expectations, but I feel it might be just a very entertaining ride as Hull City try.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
And how could anyone experiment on the unconscious, which, by definition, seemed to defy laboratory techniques of testing?
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
"You have a perfect storm that defies antibiotics."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2026
“It defies logic. It’s like the scale of the universe, it’s too big for humans to understand.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026
Zoe Kazan’s Cathy, which closely hews to Steinbeck’s original vision, defies easy assumptions about a woman’s wants and needs.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
So singular that it all but defies any kind of tea-leaf-reading or, heaven forbid, attempts at replication.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
“This behavior defies expectation. It’s like aliens have taken over their bodies.”
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
Beating the star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees on their budget defied any reasonable expectation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, made up of Democrats from the Senate and House of Representatives, said in a statement on Wednesday that "Dolores Huerta defied definition".
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
He defied recording studio conventions by bringing in natural light through large, soundproof windows instead of working in chambers sealed on all sides.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
Tens of thousands of people defied social distancing rules to bid farewell to him as he lay in state at the presidential palace.
From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026
These were the people to whom he had once boasted, acted tough; people whom he had once defied.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
The AI chip leader was defying the ongoing sector slump early Friday.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
The U.S. economy keeps powering through inflation, tariffs and higher borrowing costs, defying a run-up in Treasury yields and a Fed rate increase.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
The US House of Representatives has agreed to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress for defying legal summons related to its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Manufacturing orders in Germany climbed again in July, another signal of the country’s tentative industrial recovery that is defying the impact of surging energy prices as the conflict in the Middle East persists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Any other team on spaceship Earth would have worried about Julian's defying an official of the sovereign state of New York.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
