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. 违抗；反抗；蔑视 I wouldn't have dared to defy my teachers. 我可不敢不听老师的话。 🔊🔊 Hundreds of people today defied the ban on political gatherings. 今天有数百人违抗禁止政治集会的规定。 🔊🔊
Extra ExamplesTopics Permission and obligationc1He is willing to defy his own party. 他自愿违抗自己的党派。 Journalists were openly defying the authorities. 新闻记者公然藐视当局。 The protesters continued to defy a court injunction. 抗议者继续藐视法庭的一项禁制令。
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. 不可能，无法（相信、解释、描绘等） a political move that defies explanation 无法解释的政治举动 The beauty of the scene defies description. 景色之美简直难以描绘。 🔊🔊 His face was so odd that it defies description. 他的脸长得特别古怪，简直无法描述。
- defy something
to successfully resist something to a very unusual degree 经受住；顶住；抗住 The baby boy defied all the odds and survived (= stayed alive when it seemed certain that he would die). 这名男婴九死一生活了下来。 🔊🔊
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