How to Use defiance in a Sentence

defiance

noun
  • In a show of defiance, some even cut their hair at the protests.
    — Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 3 May 2025
  • Pink is a bit of active defiance to me.
    — Alice Park, Time, 16 Dec. 2025
  • For Takaichi’s part, defiance is now part of her brand.
    — Andy Browne, semafor.com, 9 Feb. 2026
  • So, for once, there was some defiance after a loss here.
    — Matt Gelb, New York Times, 27 Aug. 2025
  • This brings us back to the spirit of defiance.
    — Jed Perl, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026
  • This was his defiance, pride, will, and doggedness made flesh.
    — Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 21 Aug. 2021
  • That leaves tens of millions who have yet to get a shot in the arm, some of them out of defiance.
    — Ed White, Anchorage Daily News, 24 Nov. 2021
  • Their deep ties to their native land are built both of love and of bitter defiance.
    — Kate Tsurkan, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2022
  • Part of raising a preschool age kid is dealing with some defiance and tantrums.
    — Elisabeth Sherman, Parents, 16 Jan. 2026
  • At that, James stormed out of the house and peed on his bushes in defiance.
    — Stephanie Wenger, Peoplemag, 7 Feb. 2024
  • There’s a smell in the air right now — solder, espresso and defiance.
    — Bob Bonniol, Rolling Stone, 29 Oct. 2025
  • And these acts of defiance were far more than symbolic.
    — Literary Hub, 5 Dec. 2025
  • That would include open defiance of a court order.
    — Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2026
  • Semenyo, of course, did muster his own response — one of defiance.
    — Andy Jones, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2025
  • Because that’s the thing about defiance.
    — Brendan Quinn, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2025
  • But from an early age, we are taught that compliance is good and defiance is bad.
    — Sunita Sah, Twin Cities, 9 Mar. 2025
  • To Foligno, that shift is not defiance.
    — Dan Robson, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2026
  • But any sign of defiance had vanished by the time of his arraignment and not-guilty plea.
    — Nicole Hemmer, CNN, 4 Apr. 2023
  • What would Jerry Sloan have said about that kind of defiance?
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 23 Jan. 2022
  • Off-ramps are few here, with an Iranian regime so set on defiance.
    — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 31 Jan. 2026
  • Senate Democrats, with all the women dressed in white, stood in the well in defiance.
    — Terry Collins, USA Today, 8 May 2026
  • Yet, Gen Z’s defiance may not be about laziness.
    — Jake Angelo, Fortune, 23 Jan. 2026
  • His defiance surfaced as his teammates carried him off the court.
    — Marcus Thompson Ii, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026
  • And many who are now alive owe a vast, unconscious debt to the defiance displayed in the skies above this field.
    — CNN, 11 Sep. 2021
  • Her act of defiance quickly drew support.
    — Amanda Castro hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 Aug. 2025
  • The city was forced to padlock the doors in the face of such defiance of rules and regulations.
    — Siobhan McLaughlin, Sun Sentinel, 6 Feb. 2025
  • Protesters burned tires to block a road in defiance of the detentions by the army.
    — NBC News, 25 Oct. 2021
  • Rapinoe, of course, sees this defiance as something of a movement.
    — Alejandro Avila Outkick, FOXNews.com, 7 May 2026
  • But most feared the consequences of defiance.
    — Daniel Ziblatt, Foreign Affairs, 28 Aug. 2025
  • The small boy on the playground swing made a disgusted face at my sister and crossed his arms in defiance.
    — cleveland, 11 May 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'defiance.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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