▪ I. deˈfy, n. Now chiefly U.S.
Also defi.
[a. F. défi, earlier deffy (15th c. in Littré), f. deffi-er, defi-er to defy.]
Declaration of defiance; challenge to fight.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 272 Hee..because he found Amphialus was inflexible, wrote his defie vnto him in this maner. 1600 Fairfax Tasso vi. xx, Arme you, my Lord, he said, your bold defies By your braue foes accepted boldly beene. 1612 Bacon Charge touching Duels, When he had himself given the lie and defy to the Emperor. 1645 Evelyn Diary (1827) I. 279 There had been in the morning a tournament of severall young gentlemen on a formal defy. 1700 Dryden Pal. & Arc. 1856 At this the challenger with fierce defie His trumpet sounds: the challeng'd makes reply. a 1734 North Exam. i. ii. §75 (1740) 69 What becomes of his Grace's improper Defy to them? 1888 B. P. Blood Lion of Nile in Scribner's Mag. Dec. 707 And all night long, roaring my fierce defy. 1897 Harper's Mag. Jan. 231 He sent out the last defy to the enemy in 1800. 1911 Boxing 9 Sept. 454/3 Marcel Denis launches forth with a defi to Young Brooks. 1945 Sat. Rev. Lit. 29 Dec. 10 Leonard..still hurls his defy into the teeth of his enemy. |
▪ II. defy, v.1
(dɪˈfaɪ)
Forms: 4–6 defye, 4–7 -fie, 5– defy, (also 4 defyghe, 4–5 deffie, -fye, dify, diffie, -fy(e, dyffy(e).
[ME. a. OF. des-, def-, defier (mod.F. défier) = Pr. desfiar, desfizar, It. disfidare, diffidare, med.L. diffīdāre (Du Cange):—Rom. *disfīdāre, f. dis- privative + *fīdāre to trust, give faith to (f. L. fīdus faithful). The sense-development appears to have been ‘to renounce faith, alliance, or amity with, declare hostility against, challenge to fight’; the later sense ‘distrust’ found in modern F., and occasionally in Eng., is, according to Darmesteter, perh. taken over from L. diffīdĕre to distrust, of which the OF. repr. was difier: see sense 7.]
† 1. trans. To renounce faith, allegiance, or affiance to (any one); to declare hostilities or war against; to send a declaration of defiance to. Obs.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 7201 Pors..saide..Yeldith him my feute I no kepe with him have no lewte. Syggith him Y him defyghe, With sweord and with chyvalrye! Of him more holde Y nulle. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 46 Edmunde bi messengers þe erle he diffies. c 1450 Merlin 70 He hym diffied at the ende of xl dayes, he seide he sholde hym diffende yef he myght. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 228 The King sent other Ambassadors..to sommon him: and that if he would not be otherwise advised, then the king gave them full authoritie to defye him. 1885 C. Plummer Fortescue's Abs. & Lim. Mon. 258 James Douglas..defied the king [of Scotland], and offered his homage to the King of England. |
† b. To repudiate, disavow. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 746, I defye the seurete and the bond Which that thou seist þat I haue maad to thee. |
2. To challenge to combat or battle. arch.
| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 655 If þov art to fiȝte bold com on y þe diffye! 1470–85 Malory Arthur xiii. xv, Tho knyghtes in the Castel defyen yow. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 406 Defie each other, and pell-mell Make worke vpon our selues, for heauen or hell. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 49 Th' infernal Serpent..Who durst defie th' Omnipotent to Arms. 1754 Richardson Grandison I. xxxix. 291 A man who defies his fellow-creature into the field, in a private quarrel, must first defy his God. 1870 Bryant Iliad I. iii. 102 Go now, Defy him to the combat once again. |
† b. intr. To utter defiance. Obs.
| c 1400 Rowland & O. 449 Appon sir Rowlande he gan defy With a full hawtayne steven. |
3. trans. To challenge to a contest or trial of skill; esp. to challenge to do (what the challenger is prepared to maintain cannot be done). Const. to and inf.
| 1674 Brevint Saul at Endor 366, I defie all the Roman Preachers to say anything to justifie what they do upon this account. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 773 The Groom his Fellow-Groom at Buts defies. 1770 Junius Lett. xxxvii. 181, I defy the most subtile lawyer in this country to point out a single instance in which they have exceeded the truth. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. ix. (1890) 211, I defy any one at first sight to be sure that it is not a fish leaping for sport. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid vi. 171 In wild folly defying the Ocean Gods to compete. |
4. To challenge the power of; to set at defiance; to resist boldly or openly; to set at nought.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 65 Mylde men and holy..Defyed [C. xxiii. 66 Defieden] al falsenesse and folke þat hit vsed. c 1386 Chaucer Sompn. T. 220 For hir lewednesse I hem diffye. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 311 Ha, thou fortune, I the defie, Now hast thou do to me thy werst. 1530 Palsgr. 515/2, I diffye, I set at naught. 1670 Dryden Conq. Granada i. i, From my walls I defie the Powr's of Spain. 1717 T. Tudway in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. IV. 313 With a thousand other insolent speeches defying the Vice-Chancellor and Heads. 1857 Maurice Ep. St. John xiv. 224 The Apostles could not defy the witness of the conscience. |
b. Said of things: To resist completely, be beyond the power of.
| 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. ii. xix. 116 It [Naphtha]..defies to be quench'd by any Moisture whatever. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xv, Others seemed to defy all description. 1838 Thirlwall Greece III. xx. 125 The fortress defied their attacks. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 242 Holiness, deepest of all the words that defy definition. |
† 5. To set at nought; to reject, renounce, despise, disdain, revolt at. Obs.
| c 1320 R. Brunne Med. 743 Y haue be skurged, scorned dyffyed, Wounded, angred, and crucyfyed. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 115 Dyffyyn, or vtterly dyspysyn, vilipendo. 1484 Caxton Curiall 9 Certes, brother, thou demandest that whyche thou oughtest to deffye. 1537 Turner Olde Learnyng To Rdr., Some ther be that do defye All that is newe, and ever do crye The old is better, away with the newe. 1549 Olde Erasm. Par. Thess. 4, I defie all thinges in comparison of the gospel of Christ. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. Epil. 21 If I were a Woman, I would kisse as many of you as had..breaths that I defi'de not. 1601 Downf. Earl Huntington v. in Hazl. Dodsley VIII. 199 No, Iohn, I defy To stain my old hands in thy youthful blood. 1727–38 Gay Fables i. xxvi. 17 He next the mastiff's honour try'd, Whose honest jaws the bribe defy'd. |
6. ? To reprobate; to curse. Obs.
| c 1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 95 Hise deedli synnis he gan to defie. 1548 Hall Chron. 52 b, The faire damoselles defied that daie [at Agincourt] in the whiche thei had lost their paramors. |
† 7. intr. To have or manifest want of faith; to have distrust of. Obs. [OF. difier de, 12th c. in Hatzf.]
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 479 He were a fool out of bileue þat diffiede heere of Cristis help. 1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) ii. xviii. 136 We sholde defye aboue all of our strength & our merytes. 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Defie, distrust. |
▪ III. † deˈfy, v.2 Obs.
Forms: 4–6 defye, 4–5 defie, deffye, 5 dyffye, difye, defy, defyyn.
[The word has all the appearance of being of F. origin, but no equivalent OF. defier has yet been recorded, nor is it clear what the etymology of such a form would be. Phonologically, it might answer to L. dēfæcāre, dēfēcāre (see defecate); but the sense offers difficulties. It has been suggested, however, that if 1 b were the starting-point, it might conceivably answer to a late L. dēfæcāre stomachum (cf. dissolvere stomachum Pliny). But the sense-development remains uncertain, and the order here followed is provisional. It may be that ‘dissolve’ was the primary sense.]
1. trans. To digest (food). Said of a person, of the stomach or other organ, of nature, a solvent, etc.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 108 Good wyn of Gaskoyne And wyn of Oseye, Of Ruyn and of Rochel þe Rost to defye. 1377 Ibid. B. xiii. 404 More mete ete and dronke þen kende miȝt defie. Ibid. B. xv. 63 Hony is yuel to defye. 1382 Wyclif 1 Sam. xxv. 37 Whanne Naabal hadde defied the wyn [Vulg. digessisset]. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 25 My stomack may it nought defie. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 240 If..þe patient mai not wel defie his mete. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 115 Defyyn mete or drynke, digero. 1542 Boorde Dyetary ix. (1870) 250 The lyuer..can not truely decocte, defye ne dygest the superabundaunce of meate & drynke the whiche is in the stomacke. |
b. to defy the stomach, a person; to digest the stomach: see digest v.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 41 Nero than..slough hem, for he wolde se The whose stomack was best defied. And whan he hath the sothe tried, He found that he, which goth the pas, Defied best of alle was. ? c 1475 Sqr. lowe Degre 761 Ye shall have rumney and malmesyne..Rochell. The reed your stomake to defye. |
2. intr. Of food: To undergo digestion, to digest.
| c 1315 Shoreham 28 Ac [hyt]..defith nauȝt ase thy mete..Nabyd hyȝt nauȝt ase other mete Hys tyme of defyynge. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 219 For hungur oþer for Furst I make myne A-vou, Schal neuer fysch on Fridai defyen in my mawe. |
3. trans. To make ready by a process likened to digestion, to ‘concoct’.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. xxxiii. Sel. Wks. I. 88 Water..is drawen in to þe vine tree and siþ in to þe grapis, and by tyme defyed til þat it be wyn. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. vii. (Tollem. MS.), It is seyde þat yf blood is wel sode and defied, þerof men makeþ wel talow. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 222 If þou drawist out þe matere þat is neische þe matere þat is hard is yvel to defie. |
b. To dissolve, waste by dissolution.
| 1393 Gower Conf. I. 76 Þilke ymage Thei drowen out and als so faste Fer into Tibre þei it caste, Wher þe riuere it haþ defied. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas vi. xv. (1554) 162 b, The honde, the head..Were..Upon a stake set vp..There to abyde where it did shyne or reyne With wynde and wether til they wer defyed. |
c. intr.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 1160 (Fitz. MS.) The mirtes baies rype..hit is to take And honge hem in thy wyn wessell ywrie All cloos & long in hit let hem defie. |
4. to defy out: to eject as excrement; to void.
| 1382 Wyclif Deut. xxiii. 13 Whanne thow sittist, thow shalt delue bi enuyrown, and the defied out thow shalt couer with erthe, in the whych thow art releued. |