Sentence:  By tossing this nineteenth electron back and forth between its own orbit and that of its lost companion more than twenty-five thousand times a second, a mutilated stone atom is able partially to <WSD>defy</WSD> gravity and thus successfully to ride the emerging streams of light and energy, the sunbeams, to liberty and adventure. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To not conform to or follow a pattern, set of rules or expectations.