人不服從
核心畫面的原型：一個人面對權威，公開地不讓步。
defy a rule/order · verb · C2
To refuse to obey a law or rule, or to refuse to do what a person in charge tells you to do.
違抗
核心畫面
A useful picture: standing still and facing something that expects you to give way — an order, a rule, a person with power — and not giving way. The other side has every reason to expect obedience; you simply do not deliver it. The refusal is open, not hidden.
有個東西正等著你讓步——一道命令、一條規定、一個握有權力的人——而你站在那裡不動。對方完全有理由以為你會照做，你就是…更多收起
有個東西正等著你讓步——一道命令、一條規定、一個握有權力的人——而你站在那裡不動。對方完全有理由以為你會照做，你就是沒照做，而且是當面不照做，不是偷偷繞過去。這個「站著不讓」的姿勢是整個字的骨架。後面幾個意思有趣的地方在於：站著不讓的那一方不一定是人。當一件事怪到讓語言、常識、機率都拿它沒辦法時，英文就說那件事 defy 了它們——彷彿是那件事本身站在那裡，不肯服從我們用來理解世界的規則。From the word’s history
From Old French desfier, from Latin dis- ("away") + fidus ("faithful") — literally to renounce one's faith or loyalty to someone. In the 14th century the meaning shifted from "be disloyal to" to "challenge, dare". The break-of-loyalty origin explains why defy still needs an authority to push against.
字源是古法語 desfier，拆開是拉丁文 dis-（離開）+ fidus（忠誠）——字面就是「收回對某人的效忠」。十四世紀時意思從「背棄」轉向「挑戰、叫陣」。這個來源解釋了 defy 一個很重要的限制：它預設有一個上位者或一套規矩存在。你不能 defy 一個跟你平起平坐、對你沒有要求的人；一定要先有「本來應該服從」的關係，違抗才成立。
Wiktionary, "defy" (Old French desfier < Vulgar Latin *disfidare, dis- + fidus; sense shift from "be disloyal" to "challenge" in the 14th c.)
Two branches
事情不服從（規則拿它沒辦法）
同樣是「不服從」，只是主語從人變成事物，被違抗的對象從掌權者變成我們理解世界的規則。
defy description · verb · C2
To be almost impossible to describe or understand.
無法形容
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
defyverb/dɪˈfaɪ/
- 1
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.
- 2
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.
- 3
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.”
- 4
obsoleteTo 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.
defynoun/dɪˈfaɪ/
- 1
obsoleteA challenge.
- And, safe intrench'd within, her foes without defies
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。