defiant

adj
/dɪˈfaɪ(j)ənt/UK/dɪˈfaɪənt/US

Etymology

Borrowed from French défiant, from the verb défier. Doublet of diffident. By surface analysis, def(i) + -ant.

  1. borrowed from défiant

Definitions

  1. Defying.

  2. Boldly resisting opposition.

    • But the demonstrators remained defiant, pouring into the streets by the thousands and venting their anger over political corruption, the high cost of living and huge public spending for the World Cup and the Olympics.
    • Gunshots rang out in the capital Abuja and also in the neighboring Niger state as police lobbed tear gas to disperse defiant protesters. In Niger, at least six people are now feared dead, local media reported.
  3. One who defies opposition.

    • Countries condemning South Africa, Portugal and Rhodesia still find it necessary to trade with these defiants against so-called world opinion.
    • Damn the obedients and hail the defiants if you will; the experiment does not motivate confidence about how particular subjects would behave in markedly dissimilar situations.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at defiant. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01defiant02defies03defy04challenge05difficult06unwilling07reluctant

A definitional loop anchored at defiant. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at defiant

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA