How do you use the word "defy" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "defy": I defy you to make it public. I defy you to solve the problem.

Defy Meaning

/dɪˈfaɪ/

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

verbTo challenge (someone) or brave (a hazard or opposition).

verbTo refuse to obey.

Sentence Examples

I defy you to make it public.

I defy you to solve the problem.

I wouldn't have dared to defy my teachers.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

hold refuse dare

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The brave activist continues to ____ the oppressive regime's unjust laws.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

I ____ you to make it public.

Word Origin & History

From Old French desfier, from Vulgar Latin *disfidare (“renounce one's faith”), from Latin dis- (“away”) + fidus (“faithful”). Meaning shifted in the 14th century from "be disloyal" to "challenge". Contrast confide, fidelity, faith.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"I once again / Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight." — 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes:

""So you actually think yours is good-looking?" sneered the Baker. "Why, I could make a better-looking one out of a piece of dough." "I defy you to," the Hansom-driver replied. "A face like mine is not easily copied. Nor am I the only person of that opinion. All the ladies think that I am beautiful. And of course I go by what they think."" — 1900, Edith King Hall, Adventures in Toyland Chapter 6:

"Before coalition forces arrived, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered its own citizens, threatened its neighbors, and defied the world." — 2005, George W. Bush, Presidential Radio Address - 19 March 2005:

"British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far." — 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

"By tossing this nineteenth electron back and forth between its own orbit and that of its lost companion more than twenty-five thousand times a second, a mutilated stone atom is able partially to defy gravity and thus successfully to ride the emerging streams of light and energy, the sunbeams, to liberty and adventure." — 1955, anonymous author, The Urantia Book, Paper 41:

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