The Queen except, I do you all defy!

thy beauty I defy.

John, I defy thee!

Defy is here used in the sense of refuse, which was not uncommon: thus in the "Death of Robert Earl of Huntington," we have this passage, "Or, as I said, for ever I defy your company."

In the "Four 'Prentices of London," act i. sc. 1, the old Earl of Boulogne says "Vain pleasures I abhor, all things defy, That teach not to despair, or how to die.

I would have him throw a doubt upon Newton and defy Darwin!

He was a man who could face infamy and defy the conventionalities of the world, and, at the same moment, extend a helpful hand of sympathy to a friend or sit for sixty hours beside the sick bed of his dying child.

The necessity of the Christians compelled them to defy this evil repute of the forest; and Ismeno hastened to oppose them.

He had now work that aroused him; and he set out in good earnest for the forest, not unmoved in his imagination, but resolved to defy all appearances.

" Lady Audley laughed aloud, with a gay, triumphant peal as she tripped out of the room; but as she sat in her own chamber, brooding, she muttered: "Dare I defy him?

"I would defy you and kill myself if I dared.

His face was colourless rock; his eye both spark and flint; he seemed as if he would defy all things.

Goe, marry an English Captaine, and hee'll teach thee How to defy thy father and his fortune.

Some name is possibly concealed under these enigmatic letters; but the riddle would defy an Oedipus.

Five years later, Jowett and some other members of the small liberal group decided to defy the “abominable system of terrorism which prevents the statement of the plainest fact,” and issued a volume of Essays and Reviews (1860) by seven writers of whom six were clergymen.

[209] of a new champion who would defy the fortresses of authority.

Resolved, That there be a public thanksgiving for the great deliverance of Isaac's brow-antlers; and a solemn covenant drawn up to defy the corn-cutter and all his works.

"Perhaps I was piqued that she should defy my suggestion that she should go to the ball.

A weakling to be played upona coward or a fool? Nay!I defy the Israelites!Their weapons miss their mark, They have roused my utmost anger: it taketh long to cool.

Once assume merits, and I defy you to keep out supererogation and the old 'Monte di Pietà'.

Rheims and the Parthenon fall to ruins, but the Pyramids of Egypt defy the ages; all about them is the desert, its mirages and its moving sand.

I defy anybody to sleep in that room.

And speaking for my own sex, I defy any honest fellow to lay his hand upon his waistcoat and swear that it doesn't give him a distinct thrill of pleasure to be seen in public with a millionaire.

I defy you to injure my dead husband or me by your wild lies, your foul charges!

The wind seemed to assail her from every side, but she had accustomed herself to defy the elements, and she only hugged her sealskin jacket closer to her, and quickened her pace, chirruping and whistling to Ahab and Ariadne, the two fox-terriers which she had selected for the privilege of a walk.