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 Roy Moore, defier of Supreme Courts, thumper of Bibles, hater of gays and everyone else who is not exactly like Roy Moore, is the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama. Sarah Jones, New Republic, 27 Sep. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defier
Noun
  • Much depends on whether state authorities can outmaneuver the protesters and sow division in their ranks, perhaps even provoking nonviolent resisters to abandon their protests and strikes, lose their discipline and unity, and take up arms in response to repression.
    Erica Chenoweth, Foreign Affairs, 16 June 2014
  • In the 1940s and ’50s, room-sized mainframe computers relied on thousands of vacuum tubes, resisters, capacitors and more.
    Gerui Wang, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels threatened to resume targeting Israeli ships over Israel’s blocking of aid entering the Gaza Strip.
    Jon Gambrell, Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2025
  • Its members include Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Yemen's Houthi rebels.
    Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today, 14 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • The games remain incomplete, and may in fact remain that way depending on what the Front Man decides to do with Gi-hun and all of the other mutineers.
    Josh Wigler, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Jan. 2025
  • He’s been with them since the beginning, proving himself as a loyal friend and a valuable mutineer.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 7 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • His unit was in western Iraq, at a time of fierce fighting against insurgent forces and car bombs.
    Quil Lawrence, NPR, 4 Apr. 2025
  • But when the streets ominously clear out and their sniper is spotted, they're forced to engage in a fierce battle with al-Qaeda insurgents.
    EW.com, EW.com, 1 Apr. 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 25 Apr. 2025.

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