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Defy vs Agree - What's the difference?

defy | agree |

As verbs the difference between defy and agree

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

As a noun defy

is (obsolete) a challenge.

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

    *

    agree

    English

    Verb

  • To harmonize in opinion, statement, or action; to be in unison or concord; to be or become united or consistent; to concur.
  • all parties agree in the expediency of the law.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1594
  • , author=Thomas Lodge , title=The wounds of civil war: Lively set forth in the true tragedies of Marius and Scilla , page=46 , passage=You know that in so great a state as this, Two mightie foes can never well agree .}}
  • * (rfdate) Shakespeare
  • If music and sweet poetry agree .
  • * (rfdate) Mark xiv. 56.
  • Their witness agreed not together.
  • * (rfdate) Sir T. Browne
  • The more you agree together, the less hurt can your enemies do you.
  • To yield assent; to accede;—followed by to.
  • to agree to an offer, or to opinion.
  • (transitive, UK, Irish) To yield assent to; to approve.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1666
  • , author=Samuel Pepys , title=The Diary of Samuel Pepys , page=88 , passage=... and there, after a good while in discourse, we did agree a bargain of £5,000 with Sir Roger Cuttance for my Lord Sandwich for silk, cinnamon, ...}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2005
  • , author=Paddy McNutt , title=Law, economics and antitrust: towards a new perspective , page=59 , passage=The essential idea is that parties should enter the market, choose their contractors, set their own terms and agree a bargain.}}
  • * 2011 April 3, John Burke, in The Sunday Business Post :
  • Bishops agree sex abuse rules
  • To make a stipulation by way of settling differences or determining a price; to exchange promises; to come to terms or to a common resolve; to promise.
  • * (rfdate) Matt. v. 25.
  • Agree with thine adversary quickly.
  • * (rfdate) Matt. xx. 13.
  • Didst not thou agree with me for a penny ?
  • To be conformable; to resemble; to coincide; to correspond.
  • the picture does not agree with the original; the two scales agree exactly.
  • To suit or be adapted in its effects; to do well.
  • the same food does not agree with every constitution.
  • (grammar) To correspond to in gender, number, case, or person.
  • (legal) To consent to a contract or to an element of a contract.
  • Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See * The transitive usage could be considered as just an omission of to'' or ''upon . * US and Canadian English do not use the transitive form. Thus "they agreed on a price" or "they agreed to the conditions" are used in North America but not "they agreed a price" or "they agreed the conditions".

    Synonyms

    * assent, concur, consent, acquiesce, accede, engage, promise, stipulate, contract, bargain, correspond, harmonize, fit, tally, coincide, comport

    Antonyms

    * disagree

    Derived terms

    * disagree * disagreement

    Statistics

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