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Defy vs Against - What's the difference?

defy | against |

In obsolete terms the difference between defy and against

is that defy is a challenge while against is by the time that (something happened); before.

As a noun defy

is a challenge.

As a verb defy

is to renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.

As a preposition against is

A close but separated relationship.

As a conjunction against is

by the time that (something happened); before.

As an adverb against is

in opposition to something.

defy

English

Noun

(defies)
  • (obsolete) A challenge.
  • (Dryden)

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.
  • * 1603-1625 , (Beaumont and Fletcher)
  • For thee I have defied my constant mistress.
  • To challenge (someone) to do something difficult.
  • * 1671 , (John Milton), (Samson Agonistes)
  • I once again / Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight.
  • * 1900 , Edith King Hall, Adventures in Toyland Chapter 6
  • *:"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."
  • To refuse to obey.
  • * 2005 , , Presidential Radio Address - 19 March 2005
  • *:Before coalition forces arrived, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered its own citizens, threatened its neighbors, and defied the world.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
  • , title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=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.}}
  • To not conform to or follow a pattern or certain set of rules.
  • * 1955 , Anonymous, The Urantia Book Paper 41
  • *: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.
  • * 2013 , Jeré Longman in the New York Times, W.N.B.A. Hopes Griner Can Change Perceptions, as Well as Game Itself
  • *:“To be determined,” Kane said, “is whether Griner and her towering skill and engaging personality will defy the odds and attract corporate sponsors as part of widespread public acceptance four decades after passage of the gender-equity legislation known as Title IX.”
  • Derived terms

    * death-defying

    Anagrams

    *

    against

    English

    Alternative forms

    * againest (obsolete), agaynst (obsolete), agaynest (obsolete) * agenst (obsolete), agenest (obsolete), ageinst (obsolete), ageinest (qualifier), ageynst (obsolete), ageynest (qualifier), agin (colloquial or humorous)

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • A close but separated relationship.
  • #In a contrary direction to.
  • #:
  • #Close to.(rfex)
  • #:
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.
  • #In front of; before a background.
  • #:
  • #In physical contact with.
  • #:
  • #In physical opposition to, or in collision with.
  • #:
  • #*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=3/19/2
  • , passage=Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house?; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something?; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.}}
  • A contrasting or competitive relationship.
  • #In contrast and/or comparison with.
  • #:
  • #In competition with, versus.
  • #:
  • #*
  • #*:“[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
  • #*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 24, author=Aled Williams, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Chelsea 4-1 Swansea , passage=The breakthrough came through Torres who, pilloried for his miss against Manchester United a week earlier, scored his second goal of the season.}}
  • #In opposition to.
  • #:
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.}}
  • #*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
  • , title= Wild Plants to the Rescue, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist), passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
  • In exchange for.(rfex)
  • As counterbalance to.(rfex)
  • As a charge on.(rfex)
  • As protection from.
  • :
  • *{{quote-journal, year=1988, date=March 1, author=Caroni, Pico, coauthors=Schwab, Martin E. , title=Antibody against myelin associated inhibitor of neurite growth neutralizes nonpermissive substrate properties of CNS white matter, journal=Neuron citation
  • , passage=Monoclonal antibodies were raised against these proteins: IN-1 and IN-2 bound both to the 35 kd and 250 kd inhibitors and to the surface of differentiated cultured oligodendrocytes.}}
  • (lb) Exposed to.(rfex)
  • In anticipation of; in preparation for (a particular time, event etc.).
  • *, II.11:
  • *:He wrote to a friend of his, that he lived but with browne bread and water, and entreated him to send him a piece of cheese, against the time he was to make a solemne feast.
  • Synonyms

    * (in competition with) versus

    Antonyms

    * for * with

    Conjunction

    (head)
  • (obsolete) By the time that (something happened); before.
  • * , II.ix:
  • Thence she them brought into a stately Hall, / Wherein were many tables faire dispred, / And ready dight with drapets festiuall, / Against the viaundes should be ministred.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 6:
  • He now gave Mrs Deborah positive orders to take the child to her own bed, and to call up a maid-servant to provide it pap, and other things, against it waked.

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • In opposition to something.
  • (gambling) Having a specified likelihood of not winning or happening.
  • Statistics

    *