Search results
- DictionaryDe·fy/dəˈfī/
verb
- 1. openly resist or refuse to obey: "a woman who defies convention"
to be extreme or very strange and therefore impossible to believe, describe, or explain: The chaos at the airport defies description. See more. defy someone to do something. to tell someone to do something that you think will be impossible: I defy you to prove your accusations. See more. More examples. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases.
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.
1. to resist (a powerful person, authority, etc) openly and boldly. 2. to elude, esp in a baffling way: his actions defy explanation. 3. formal to challenge or provoke (someone to do something judged to be impossible); dare: I defy you to climb that cliff. 4. (Military) archaic to invite to do battle or combat.
I defy anyone not to cry at the end of the film. I defy you to leave without buying something. Definition of defy verb in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
4 days ago · verb Word forms: -fies, -fying, -fied (transitive) 1. to resist (a powerful person, authority, etc) openly and boldly. 2. to elude, esp in a baffling way. his actions defy explanation. 3. formal. to challenge or provoke (someone to do something judged to be impossible ); dare. I defy you to climb that cliff.
defy. From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English de‧fy /dɪˈfaɪ/ verb (defied, defying, defies) [ transitive] 1 to refuse to obey a law or rule, or refuse to do what someone in authority tells you to do → defiance people who openly defy the law see thesaurus at disobey 2 → defy description/analysis/belief etc 3 → defy logic/the ...
used to say that someone 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 movie. I defy you to leave without buying something. See defy in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Check pronunciation: defy.
