Defies [verb]

Their picturesque pronunciation gives their conversation a piquancy which defies imitation.

The women were dressed in a variety both of shape and colour, which defies all description.

The remark is truer of commerce, which is a law to p. 256itself, and which defies Acts of Parliament and royal patronage.

Sex, like all complicated phenomena, defies being crowded into a simple definition.

He appended a theory, which has its germ of truth, but defies definition, and is easily twisted to save a special argument.

It is his first duty to deliver his message with a plainness that defies misunderstanding.

That means not only an escape from laziness and apathy, but eagerness is the only thing in the world that defies fatigue.

I never saw any one who so well defies the power of time and vice to disfigure.

A girl who loves one man purely has about her an amulet which defies the advances of the profligate.

In this bag the Nascopi thrusts his legs, draws his knees up to his chin, and defies both wind and snow.