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Defy vs Protest - What's the difference?

defy | protest |

As nouns the difference between defy and protest

is that defy is a challenge while protest is a formal objection, especially one by a group.

As verbs the difference between defy and protest

is that defy is to renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce while protest is to make a strong objection.

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

    *

    protest

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To make a strong objection.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.
  • *
  • (label) To affirm (something).
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:I will protest your cowardice.
  • *1919 , , (The Moon and Sixpence) ,
  • *:She flashed a smile at me, and, protesting an engagement with her dentist, jauntily walked on.
  • To object to.
  • :
  • To call as a witness in affirming or denying, or to prove an affirmation; to appeal to.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Fiercely [they] opposed / My journey strange, with clamorous uproar / Protesting fate supreme.
  • to make a solemn written declaration, in due form, on behalf of the holder, against all parties liable for any loss or damage to be sustained by non-acceptance or non-payment of (a bill or note). This should be made by a notary public, whose seal it is the usual practice to affix.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A formal objection, especially one by a group.
  • A collective gesture of disapproval: a demonstration.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Can China clean up fast enough? , passage=All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism.}}

    Synonyms

    * dissent * objection * protestation

    Derived terms

    * Protestant * protestation * protester * protest march * under protest

    Anagrams

    * * English heteronyms ----