(v. t.) To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.
(v. t.) To provoke to combat or strife; to call out to combat; to challenge; to dare; to brave; to set at defiance; to treat with contempt; as, to defy an enemy; to defy the power of a magistrate; to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy public opinion.
(n.) A challenge.
Example Sentences:
(1) For his lone, perilous journey that defied the US occupation authorities, Burchett was pilloried, not least by his embedded colleagues.
(2) "We have Revolutionary Guards who defied orders, though they were severely punished, expelled from the force and taken to prison," he says.
(3) He said his party was determined to go ahead with the poll, even if it meant defying Spain's constitutional court, which Rull dismissed as biased.
(4) When several of its semi-autonomous cars were caught running red lights, the state ordered their removal from the road – an order Uber openly defied , blaming the traffic light violations on “human error” and suspending the people monitoring the cars.
(5) Speaker Paul Ryan and majority leader Kevin McCarthy, the two top House Republicans, had argued in Monday’s meeting – held with no prior notice – against making the unilateral ethics change, calling for a bipartisan approach at a later date, but rank-and-file Republicans defied their leadership.
(6) Heidi Allen, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, abstained in last week’s vote but said she and others would defy the party whip if concessions were not offered.
(7) Barack Obama has defied a Republican Congress to move ahead on his climate agenda on Wednesday, cracking down on methane emissions from America’s oil and natural gas boom.
(8) The home secretary, Theresa May , has defied her own expert advisers and banned qat, a mild herbal stimulant that is traditionally used by Britain's Somali, Yemeni and Ethiopian communities.
(9) No call for the resurrection of the proud, shared traditions of Scots, Welsh and English people as they defied the powerful to build a better society; no convincing pledge that a new Britain would be forged, just and equal and fair unlike what New Labour failed to deliver.
(10) Some samples with complex patterns defied classification, and it is speculated that these may be from persons with duplicated C7 genes.
(11) Sales on the high street were much higher than expected this month, rising at their fastest rate in six years as consumers defied the gloomy economic outlook.
(12) But the instruction issued by the party headquarters in Paris was defied by the Socialist candidate in the Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine region, who came third but announced he would stand for the second round anyway.
(13) This was the childhood playground of actor Richard Harris, where he performed death-defying handstands and cycling tricks on the cliffside walls when not showboating by the sea.
(14) Just as no single description is universally applicable to the mode of action of vitamin A derivatives, so too do their toxic effects defy generalization.
(15) He has been held without charges since his arrest on 5 June but has been informed that under martial law he faces up to 14 years in prison on possible charges of inciting unrest, violating cyber laws and defying the junta's orders.
(16) Writers should be making more of an effort to write interesting parts for actors of colour that defy stereotypes, or implementing a Geena Davis type solution (simply change any character in a script into a woman) for race.
(17) It defies the logic of personal ambition that grows stronger with proximity to the biggest job in the world.
(18) It was so I could tell Jeremy that I had backed him.” Corbyn has defied not only Fletcher’s expectations but everyone else’s.
(19) But, since then, it has fallen to around $1,660 (£1,047) defying predictions – and the hopes of speculators – that it would continue to hit new peaks during the ongoing financial turmoil.
(20) For the last five months, he has enjoyed unprecedented political dominance, after an election where the SNP defied the logic of Holyrood's semi-proportional system by winning an absolute majority, sweeping into power with nearly 50% of the vote.
Despise
Definition:
(v. t.) To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of.
Example Sentences:
(1) Indeed, it is democracy itself that the markets seem to despise.
(2) We were immediately sure he despised the movie more than any of the other Hollywood McCarthy adaptations – and there had been a few stinkers.
(3) Disowned by family and despised by public opinion, she is now in prison.
(4) The militant group, which despises foreign intervention, has expelled numerous international and local aid groups from the territory it controls.
(5) First, medicine was despised as a mechanical art or suspected of paganism because of its literary sources.
(6) How would you describe a person with an adoring sister and admiring father creating a child despised by father and siblings?
(7) In the wake of plunging costs in global market, prices on the forecourt have fallen much faster than household heating bills, which may be why petrol and oil companies are less despised than home energy suppliers – also being named by 26%.
(8) He has been derided in these pages, but that derision is surpassed by the venomous hatred of the Daily Mail , which loathes the Cameron government in any case and particularly despised Mitchell in his previous job.
(9) "I've always despised it to a certain degree but after this last few years and all this nonsense with the films, I believe it to be a completely poisonous place that isn't really going anywhere.
(10) Though he despised “race-baiting”, Noir wrote, “covert racism is a real thing and is very dangerous.
(11) So far, concerns about reproductions creeping on to the collectibles market seem greater than any worries about the reintroduction of objects that resurrect old, despised stereotypes.
(12) It's a melancholy fate for any writer to become an eponym for all that he despised, but that is what happened to George Orwell, whose memory is routinely abused in unthinking uses of the adjective "Orwellian".
(13) What an irony that our own MPs and peers, who complain so bitterly about the draining of British sovereignty to Brussels, were not trusted to discuss this issue – while the despised European parliament has, over the past year, freely, intelligently, intricately and repeatedly addressed it.
(14) The group despised the liberal socialism of the dominant Labour Zionists and its goal was an "Iron Wall" to defend Jews against what they deemed would be an inevitable backlash by Arabs.
(15) They were never aggressive, they were never forcing it down your throat … but you were left with no illusions looking at their social media that they were a) Chelsea fans and b) Ukip supporters.” He said he “despised” racism and described the actions on the film as appalling, adding that it in no way represented the views of most people at his former school.
(16) Vronsky, who had despised Karenin because he wouldn't fight a duel, is now humiliated and dishonoured; Karenin, flooded with forgiveness for everyone, wins back Anna's respect.
(17) He promised to take us "to the heart of Europe", but left behind a country more Europhobic than ever – and more despised in a Europe that he berated to appease Rupert Murdoch.
(18) They despised Bond's characters, his "slavishly literal bawdry", the lack of artistry in his writing.
(19) Malone, who was made a billionaire several times over by the AT&T deal, despised being answerable to the parent company's board and wanted out.
(20) Johnson was despised on the right and left by the time he was driven from office in 1968.