Defied

How to spell defied

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce defied

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does defied mean?

1. verbOpenly resisted or refused to obey a person, rule, or expectation.

Defied in a sentence

• The toddler defied every instruction at bedtime.

• The small company defied the odds and turned a profit in its first year.

Where does defied come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense of the verb 'defy', which entered English in the 1300s from Old French 'desfier' or 'defier', meaning to renounce one's allegiance or to challenge to combat. The Old French verb descends from Vulgar Latin 'disfidare', built from the prefix 'dis-' (meaning away or apart) and 'fidare' (to trust or to pledge faith), itself rooted in Latin 'fides' (faith, trust). The literal sense was therefore to undo a bond of faith, so that to defy someone originally meant to formally withdraw your loyalty and declare yourself an enemy. Over time the meaning softened from this feudal renunciation into the modern idea of openly resisting or boldly opposing. The same Latin 'fides' family gives us 'fidelity', 'confide' and 'faith', and the spelling trap in 'defied' is simply the regular rule by which a final 'y' after a consonant turns into 'i' before the '-ed' ending.

How the word is built

• de- (away, undo)
• -fy (from Latin fidare, to trust/pledge faith)
• -ied (past tense, where final -y becomes -i)