(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.
Flout
Definition:
(v. t.) To mock or insult; to treat with contempt.
(v. i.) To practice mocking; to behave with contempt; to sneer; to fleer; -- often with at.
(n.) A mock; an insult.
Example Sentences:
(1) With just less than 1% of the world’s population homeless and seeking a better, safer life, a global crisis is under way, exacerbated by a lack of political cooperation – and several states, including the United Kingdom, are flouting international agreements designed to deal with the crisis.
(2) She and her two fellow PCCs for the region have been campaigning for local courts to take a stronger line on cases that are prosecuted, and have called for action against one judge they accuse of flouting sentencing guidelines, but she says it is impossible to know if sentences are in line with those for other offences of violence because cases are not logged separately.
(3) Eviction orders issued by a local authority generally involve individuals who are several thousands of pounds in arrears, or people who have consistently flouted reasonable repayment orders or avoided communication with the council.
(4) Our diplomatic relations suffered a severe setback when our Embassy compounds in Tehran were overrun in 2011 and the Vienna Convention flouted, and when the Iranian Majles voted to downgrade relations with the UK.
(5) The chief executive of a corporation that has flouted environmental laws might say something like: “You activists just don’t get it.
(6) We want to know how long they have done this for, what they’ve done with our private data, how much they have made from this, and why they keep flouting privacy laws?
(7) Yet anger is building among transparency campaigners, some of whom are expected to soon launch a legal challenge with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), arguing that some of the biggest names in American politics have been actively flouting the rules.
(8) • This article was amended on 29 January 2015 to correct a misuse of flaunt for flout in the sub-heading.
(9) He said Australia had a free trade agreement with China, and if China intended to flout the agreement in retaliation, it should say so.
(10) "The prosecution of journalists for reporting information that does not coincide with the government of Egypt's narrative flouts the most basic standards of media freedom and represents a blow to democratic progress in Egypt ."
(11) "Ian Kerr colluded with construction firms for many years flouting the Data Protection Act and ignoring thousands of people's privacy rights," he said.
(12) The charity is also calling for sanctions against Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Thailand, which it says have flouted the law for years.
(13) No doubt it's a serious matter that some abortion clinics are said to be flouting the law and getting consent forms pre-signed by doctors.
(14) It says Trump flouted anti-nepotism law by appointing his daughter and her husband to White House jobs .
(15) Those openly called on to flout international law in the interests of a higher good do not then suddenly submit that goal to domestic law once they've gone through customs.
(16) Alan Andrews, ClientEarth lawyer, said: "The supreme court recognised that this case has broader implications for EU environmental law: the government can't flout environmental law with impunity.
(17) Because if Keogh’s right, if this “challenges the ethical framework”, if we’re acting in spite of conscience and not because of it, then almost every junior doctor in the land is flouting the rules set out by the GMC, and performing deficiently.
(18) Three ex-bosses flouted the rules when the now-defunct institution lent hundreds of millions of euros to 16 people in the summer of 2008 at a time when its share price had collapsed, the Irish state's prosecutor said.
(19) Let us make it clear that Labour will never make the same mistake again, will never flout the United Nations and international law.” This effectively rules out Labour under Corbyn from supporting David Cameron’s government in a proposed House of Commons vote to expand to Syria the current UK air strikes in Iraq against Islamic State.
(20) In May, the prime minister was more exercised by the flouting of privacy injunctions on Twitter, saying that the law should be reviewed to "catch up with how people consume media today" because it was unfair that newspapers were unable to identify philandering celebrities such as Ryan Giggs, who had taken out an injunction, when their identity was freely circulating on Twitter .