Defying

How to spell defying

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce defying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does defying mean?

1. verbOpenly resisting or refusing to obey a person, rule, or expectation.

Defying in a sentence

• The staff walked out, defying the manager's direct order.

• By defying the new parking rules, she risked a hefty fine.

Where does defying come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the present participle of the verb 'defy', which English took from the Old French 'desfier', meaning to renounce one's allegiance or to challenge someone openly. That Old French word was built from 'des-', a prefix signalling reversal or removal, joined to a verb derived from the Latin 'fidus', meaning 'faithful', and 'fidare', 'to trust'. The literal sense was therefore to withdraw the trust or faith one had pledged, which is why a medieval knight who renounced his loyalty was said to defy his lord, sometimes by formally issuing a challenge. Over the 1300s and 1400s the meaning broadened from this narrow feudal act of breaking faith into the wider modern idea of boldly resisting or openly refusing to obey. The same Latin 'fidus' root sits inside familiar words such as 'fidelity' and 'confide', and the silent shift from the base 'defy' to the inflected 'defying' (where the y stays put before -ing) is the small spelling point worth noticing.

How the word is built

• de- (away, undo)
• fy (from Latin fidare/fidus: to trust, to pledge faith)
• -ing (present participle suffix)