Collocations for defy - verb

openly
Journalists were openly defying the authorities.

be prepared to (esp. BrE), be willing to
He is willing to defy his own party.

continue to
The protesters continued to defy a court injunction.

Defy is used with these nouns as the object:
authority, ban, belief, classification, comprehension, convention, curfew, death, description, expectation, explanation, gravity, imagination, interpretation, logic, odds, preconception, prediction, reason, sceptic, stereotype, tradition