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.”

Verb

(fac)

To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).

:

*

*:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.

To have its front closest to, or in the direction of (something else).

:

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:He gained also with his forces that part of Britain which faces Ireland.

(lb) To cause (something) to turn or present a face or front, as in a particular direction.

(lb) To deal with (a difficult situation or person).

:

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:I'll face / This tempest, and deserve the name of king.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Joseph Stiglitz)

, volume=188, issue=26, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Globalisation is about taxes too , passage=It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. It is a tax system that is pivotal in creating the increasing inequality that marks most advanced countries today […].}}

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}

(lb) To have the front in a certain direction.

:

(lb) To have as an opponent.

*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC

, title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=And a further boost to England's qualification prospects came after the final whistle when Wales recorded a 2-1 home win over group rivals Montenegro, who Capello's men face in their final qualifier.}}

To be the batsman on strike.

(lb) To confront impudently; to bully.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:I will neither be faced nor braved.

To cover in front, for ornament, protection, etc.; to put a facing upon.

:

To line near the edge, especially with a different material.

:

To cover with better, or better appearing, material than the mass consists of, for purpose of deception, as the surface of a box of tea, a barrel of sugar, etc.

(lb) To make the surface of (anything) flat or smooth; to dress the face of (a stone, a casting, etc.); especially, in turning, to shape or smooth the flat surface of, as distinguished from the cylindrical surface.