Past tense of defy
regular verb
The past tense of defy is defied. The past participle is also defied.
Forms of defy
| Base form (V1) | defy /dɪˈfaɪ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | defied |
| Past participle (V3) | defied |
| Present participle | defying |
| Third person singular | defies |
Defied in a sentence
- Before coalition forces arrived, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered its own citizens, threatened its neighbors, and defied the world.2005, George W. Bush, Presidential Radio Address - 19 March 2005
- A group of rebels defied the general's orders and split off from the main army.From the entry rebel
- Matters came to a head when the Hydriot Admiral Miaoulis defied the government.2019, Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, Penguin, published 2020, page 108. From the entry Hydriot
- Jones is a pop-culture phenom whose bold antics, outlandish personality, and dazzling looks defied all norms.2013, Ytasha L. Womack, Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, →ISBN, page 105. From the entry phenom
- It defied every image of a draconian being Kulp had ever seen.2006, Steven Erikson, Deadhouse Gates, Book Two, →ISBN, page 384. From the entry draconian
Meaning of defy
- verb To challenge (someone) or brave (a hazard or opposition).
- verb To refuse to obey.
- verb To not conform to or follow a pattern, set of rules or expectations.
Questions about the past tense of defy
- What is the past tense of defy?
- The past tense of defy is defied.
- What is the past participle of defy?
- The past participle of defy is defied.
- Is defy a regular or irregular verb?
- Defy is a regular verb: its past tense changes -y to -ied.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: defy (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “Past tense of defy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/defy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.