Search the Dictionary

ll bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce. [Obs.] I defy the surety and the bond. Chaucer. For thee I have defied my constant mistress. Beau. & Fl.

To make wet or moist. [R.]

To challenge or defy to a match. [Colloq. Southern and Western U.S.]

Roman Catholics; to distinguish each bead by a prayer. [Obs.] -- To bid defiance to , to defy openly; to brave. -- To bid fair, to offer a good prospect; to make fair promise; to seem likely.

te the thumb at (any one), formerly a mark of contempt, designed to provoke a quarrel; to defy. "Do you bite your thumb at us " Shak. -- To bite the tongue, to keep silence. Shak.

To encounter with courage and fortitude; to set at defiance; to defy; to dare. These I can brave, but those I can not bear. Dryden.

To defy or challenge. [Obs.] You shall cartel him. B. Jonson.

To call to a contest of any kind; to call to answer; to defy. I challenge any man to make any pretense to power by right of fatherhood. Locke.

To challenge; to provoke; to defy. Time, I dare thee to discover Such a youth and such a lover. Dryden.

The act of defying, putting in opposition, or provoking to combat; a challenge; a provocation; a summons to combat. A war without a just defiance made. Dryden. Stood for her cause, and flung defiance down. Tennyson.

To defy; to challenge. [Obs.] L. Andrews.

The act of madefying, or making wet; the state of that which is made wet. [R.] Bacon.

To defy. [Obs.] J. Webster.

er. See Cipher. To set at naught, to treat as of no account; to disregard; to despise; to defy; to treat with ignominy. "Ye have set at naught all my counsel." Prov. i. 25.

er universal; to enlarge. [R.] Omnify the disputed point into a transcendent, and you may defy the opponent to lay hold of it. Coleridge.

To blow, as an expression of scorn; -- with at. It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation. South.

A vision seen in sleep; a dream. [Obs.] Wycliff (Acts ii. 17). I defy both sweven and dream. Chaucer.

or exertion of strength for the purpose of ascertaining what can be done or effected. [I] defy thee to the trial of mortal fight. Milton.

ntly provided with hands or workers; short-handed; sparsely populated. Norway . . . might defy the world, . . . but it is much underhanded now. Coleridge.