defy vs. resist

Question

original sentence: Unlike the passage of time, biological aging defies easy measurement.

revised sentence: Unlike the passage of time, biological aging resists easy measurement.

The original sentence means that biological aging is almost impossible to measure with ease.

But The second sentence means that biological aging is not affected by easry measurement. So I think the revised one is wrong.

Pls give me some advice.

GPY · Accepted Answer

I understand both sentences to mean roughly the same, i.e. that biological aging is hard or impossible to measure. "defies" is a bit stronger than "resists" (makes something sound impossible rather than just difficult).

Koforum · Answer

I just looked up 'resist' in the oxford dictionary.

1. Withstand the action or effect of: antibodies help us to resist infection

More example sentences

Gyroscopes create their own force through spinning, thereby resisting the effects of gravity.
It strengthens the lungs to resist the effects of sudden changes in the air, and it healthfully braces and invigorates the chest.
Some have acquired an armoury of genes which help them attach to cells, invade and damage tissue, colonise hosts, evade the immune system, and resist the effects of antibiotics.

2. Try to prevent by action or argument: we will resist changes to the treaty

More example sentences

In fact, if that's the motive of the government, them I think we've just identified the best argument for resisting the abolition of jury trials for fraud.
Posters carrying the message ‘Prevent torture, resist torture and help victims of torture’ will be circulated.
Such an argument resists many of the typical counter-arguments directed at potentiality as an ethical consideration in the abortion debate.

My question is..

If the subject is a person like we, 'resist' will have the meaning like #2.

However, If the subject is not a person, will it have different meaning like #1?

GPY · Answer

The concept of biological aging "withstanding the action or effect of easy measurement" does not make any sense. Therefore, that interpretation is not available, and instead we look for the interpretation that makes sense, which is that biological aging is hard to measure. This interpretation of "resist" borrows from a meaning that most commonly applies to animate things, but can be extended to concepts and to inanimate things in appropriate cases.

Koforum · Answer

Thanks GPY.

When we remark with surprise that someone “looks young” for his or her chronological age, we are observing that we all age biologically at different rates. Scientists have good evidence that this apparent difference is real. It is likely that age changes begin in different parts of the body at different times and that the rate of annual change varies among various cells, tissues, and organs, as well as from person to person. Unlike the passage of time, biological aging [defies-> resists] easy measurement. What we would like to have is one or a few measurable biological changes that mirror all other biological age changes without reference to the passage of time, so that we could say, for example, that someone who is chronologically eighty years old is biologically sixty years old. This kind of measurement would help explain why one eighty-year-old has so many more youthful qualities than does another eighty-year-old, who may be biologically eighty or even ninety years old.

In the paragraph above, if I change the word, 'defy' into the word 'resist', is it acceptable?

GPY · Answer

The answer is yes, with the slight change of meaning that I mentioned earlier, but I can't quite see what new point you are raising. Isn't this exactly the question that we have just been discussing?

Koforum · Answer

Thanks GPY!

I just wanted to check it in the whole paragraph.

GPY · Answer

koforumThanks GPY! I just wanted to check it in the whole paragraph.

Oh, OK, I see ...

defy vs. resist

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