defy

To challenge (someone) or brave (a hazard or opposition).

to defy an enemy; to defy the power of a magistrate; to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy public opinion

I once again / Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight.

To refuse to obey.

If you defy your teacher you may end up in detention.

Before coalition forces arrived, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered its own citizens, threatened its neighbors, and defied the world.

To not conform to or follow a pattern, set of rules or expectations.

By tossing this nineteenth electron back and forth between its own orbit and that of its lost companion more than twenty-five thousand times a second, a mutilated stone atom is able partially to defy gravity and thus successfully to ride the emerging streams of light and energy, the sunbeams, to liberty and adventure.

“To be determined,” Kane said, “is whether Griner and her towering skill and engaging personality will defy the odds and attract corporate sponsors as part of widespread public acceptance four decades after passage of the gender-equity legislation known as Title IX.”

To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.

1603-1625, Beaumont and Fletcher For thee I have defied my constant mistress.

Dear perfum'd jackets, pennyless breeches; / Dutch flapdragons, healths in urine; / Drabs that keep a man too sure in: / I do defy you all. / Lend me each honest hand, for here I rise / A reclaim'd man, loathing the general vice.

A challenge.

And, safe intrench'd within, her foes without defies