Defy vs Delay - What's the difference?
defy | delay |
(obsolete) A challenge.
To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.
* 1603-1625 , (Beaumont and Fletcher)
To challenge (someone) to do something difficult.
* 1671 , (John Milton), (Samson Agonistes)
* 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= 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,
*:“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.”
To put off until a later time; to defer.
* Bible, (w) xxiv. 48
To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=10
, passage=Mr. Cooke had had a sloop?yacht built at Far Harbor, the completion of which had been delayed , and which was but just delivered. […] The Maria had a cabin, which was finished in hard wood and yellow plush, and accommodations for keeping things cold.}}
(label) To allay; to temper.
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
* Bible, Acts xxv. 17
* Macaulay
(obsolete) To dilute, temper.
(obsolete) To assuage, quench, allay.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.12:
In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between defy and delay
is that defy is (obsolete) a challenge while delay is (obsolete) to assuage, quench, allay.As nouns the difference between defy and delay
is that defy is (obsolete) a challenge while delay is a period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.As verbs the difference between defy and delay
is that defy is to renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce while delay is to put off until a later time; to defer or delay can be (obsolete) to dilute, temper.defy
English
Noun
(defies)- (Dryden)
Verb
(en-verb)- For thee I have defied my constant mistress.
- I once again / Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight.
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.}}
W.N.B.A. Hopes Griner Can Change Perceptions, as Well as Game Itself
Derived terms
* death-defyingAnagrams
*delay
English
(wikipedia delay)Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at let (to hinder), late, leave.Verb
(en verb)- My lord delayeth his coming.
- The watery showers delay the raging wind.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . SeeSynonyms
* See also * adjourn * defer * forslow * postpone * put off * put on ice * suspendNoun
(en noun)- the delay before the echo of a sound
- Without any delay , on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat.
- The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- Those dreadfull flames she also found delayd / And quenched quite like a consumed torch […].
