Word.ws English Dictionary

set at defiance

set at defiance verb: to defy, flout; violate or disobey shamelessly.

Verb

set at defiance (third-person singular simple present sets at defiance, present participle setting at defiance, simple past and past participle set at defiance)

  1. To defy, flout; violate or disobey shamelessly.
    • In the town of Angla […] no person may appear on horseback in the streets […]. In former days even Europeans were forbidden to ride on horseback in Angla; and missionaries who attempted to set the local prejudice at defiance have been pelted with sticks and dirt by the outraged natives.1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 8, page 45

Forms of set at defiance

third-person singular presentsets at defiance
present participlesetting at defiance
past participleset at defiance
pastset at defiance

Questions about set at defiance

What does set at defiance mean?
Set at defiance means to defy, flout; violate or disobey shamelessly.
What part of speech is set at defiance?
Set at defiance is a verb.
What is the past tense of set at defiance?
The past tense of set at defiance is set at defiance.

Words near set at defiance in the dictionary

  1. Set animal
  2. Set animals
  3. set apart
  4. set aright
  5. set aside
  6. set at defiance
  7. set at naught
  8. set at nought
  9. set back
  10. set book
  11. set books

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set at defiance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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