defiance

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or an example of defying; bold resistance to an opposing force or authority.
• noun Intentionally contemptuous behavior or attitude; readiness to contend or resist.
• idiom (in defiance of) In spite of; contrary to.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Suspicion; mistrust.
• noun The act of one who defies; a challenge to fight; an invitation to combat; a call to an adversary to fight if he dare.
• noun A challenge to meet in any contest; a call upon one to make good any assertion or charge; an invitation to maintain any cause or point.
• noun Contempt of opposition or danger; a daring or resistance that implies contempt of an adversary, or disregard of any opposing force: as, he pressed forward in defiance of the storm.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of defying, putting in opposition, or provoking to combat; a challenge; a provocation; a summons to combat.
• noun A state of opposition; willingness to flight; disposition to resist; contempt of opposition.
• noun obsolete A casting aside; renunciation; rejection.
• noun to defy; to disregard recklessly or contemptuously.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The feeling, or spirit of being defiant.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun intentionally contemptuous behavior or attitude
• noun a hostile challenge
• noun a defiant act