Definition of "defiance" []

• The act or an example of defying; bold resistance to an opposing force or authority. (noun)
• Intentionally contemptuous behavior or attitude; readiness to contend or resist. (noun)
• In defiance of In spite of; contrary to: went on strike in defiance of union policy. (idiom)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Now I feel by imperceptible signs, which I cannot yet interpret but will later, that his defiance is about to thaw."
• "She was heavily critical of what she described as the defiance of the state of Georgia and its inability to admit that it had made a mistake."
• "She was angry at his approval of what she called my defiance of her father, and insisted that I was the catspaw of one of Heriot's plots to vex him."