as in resister
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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.
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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
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There’s also no strategic plan or national campaign in place that assures nonviolent resisters that their involvement is part of a grand strategy.—
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Newsom got another fix of national media attention to bolster his image as resister-in-chief to the commander-in-chief, in apparent preparation for a 2028 presidential campaign.—
Noun
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But 2026 isn’t 2022, with years of GOP control giving challengers clearer lines of attack.—
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Quigley has filed for re-election for his current seat in Congress and faces four challengers in the Democratic primary election in March.—
Noun
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Last December, armed rebels previously aligned with terror groups finally ousted Assad from power after a 14 year civil war.—
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There was a buffer zone where French soldiers were and then the north was held by rebel groups.—
Noun
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The uniform of the conformist — sports shirt, cardigan, tennis shoes — is as easily recognized as that of the recusant — dirty white T, sideburns, two days’ growth of beard.—
Noun
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Language purists like to remind anyone who will listen that decimation actually means the slaughter of one in ten people, and was the military punishment wielded by the Roman army against deserters and mutineers.—
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Few among the bureaucratic, business, and even military elites denounced the mutineers, exposing limited support for Putin.—
Noun
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While many are now driven primarily by economic interests, a subset retains insurgent, ant-imperialist commitments.—
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That could mean tightening sanctions on remaining power brokers, expanding strikes against security installations and militias, covertly supporting insurgent factions, and using Maduro’s prospective trial as a global stage on which to delegitimize Chavismo once and for all.—
Noun
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Deporting supposed gang members and Hamas supporters without due process may violate any number of statutes, but forcing oppositionists to defend these people’s rights allows the administration to paint them as defending their ideas.—
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Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is a Sunni Islamist umbrella group of oppositionist forces with ideological and organizational roots in al-Qaeda.—
Noun
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The collection drew inspiration from two seemingly distant sources: a still-life painting of a shirt collar by Joe Brainard, the prolific 1960s New York writer and artist, and a short story by Yu Dafu, the early 20th-century Chinese author and revolutionist.—
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In a country shackled and scarred by race, religion, gender, and class, much of that rationalized and reified by mainline American churches, the Disciples were genial revolutionists offering inclusion, education, and empowerment for those at the margins.—
Cite this Entry
“Defier.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defier. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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