defier

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of defier Evan Turk’s provocative and emotive illustrations, portraits within this portrait, bring swirling movement and feeling to the story of this defier and definer of the times. BostonGlobe.com, 22 Apr. 2021 Everybody enjoys being thought of as a scofflaw, or a hell-raiser, or defier of authority, especially if such activity happened in the past. Karen Martin, Arkansas Online, 29 Nov. 2020 Critics see a reckless defier of laws and norms who must be held to account. Chicago Tribune, Twin Cities, 17 Nov. 2019 Belichick is the league’s most prominent convention-defier; Schwartz is a veteran myth-buster. Michael Rosenberg, SI.com, 2 Feb. 2018 The Ordinary's Granactive Retinoid* 2% Emulsion ($9.80) is a retinoid active, part of the family of age-defiers that helps reduce wrinkles. Macaela MacKenzie, Allure, 26 Jan. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defier
Noun
  • As a symbol of the Shoah, Auschwitz obscures the courage of Jewish resisters.
    Martin Kimel, Baltimore Sun, 26 Jan. 2025
  • In the circumstances that Spain’s government has created for itself, even those most averse to change and politically hesitant can become rebels and resisters.
    R. Joseph Huddleston, Foreign Affairs, 6 Oct. 2017
Noun
  • On the battlefield, the nobles’ cavalry and superior artillery brutally cut down the rebels.
    Michael Bruening, The Conversation, 25 Feb. 2025
  • The rebels on Friday also claimed to have seized a second airport in the region, in the town of Kavumu outside Bukavu.
    JUSTIN KABUMBA, arkansasonline.com, 16 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • He’s been with them since the beginning, proving himself as a loyal friend and a valuable mutineer.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 7 Feb. 2025
  • The mutineers requested political asylum but instead were imprisoned by the Cambodian government.
    Roberto Loiederman, Baltimore Sun, 11 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • Britain, under the comparatively liberal Keir Starmer, has a rather more niche anxiety: that its citizens will leave and then return as insurgents.
    Damon Wise, Deadline, 24 Jan. 2025
  • Pakistani security forces killed 27 insurgents during a raid on a militant hideout, according to a statement from the country's military.
    John Mac Ghlionn, Newsweek, 13 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is a Sunni Islamist umbrella group of oppositionist forces with ideological and organizational roots in al-Qaeda.
    Joseph Epstein, Newsweek, 10 Dec. 2024
  • Within Russia, the oppositionists’ challenges are far greater.
    Michael Kimmage, Foreign Affairs, 18 Sep. 2024
Noun
  • And many revolutionists think that new equipment has changed the patterns of advance and retreat in Ukraine relative to historical experience.
    Stephen Biddle, Foreign Affairs, 10 Aug. 2023
  • As the head of China’s Nationalist government, Chiang and his party were trying to establish control in a nation divided among revolutionists, nationalists, Indigenous warlords, and a developing communist army and government.
    Susan Tate Ankeny, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Apr. 2024

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Cite this Entry

“Defier.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defier. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.

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