The phrase "defy the notion" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used to express disagreement or challenge a widely-held belief. For example, "Throughout history, women have been expected to fulfill certain roles, but many have bravely defied the notion that they are lesser than their male peers."
India's wild and crazy popular movies may make great demands on the suspension of disbelief, or richly reward it, or defy the notion that art depends on it.
Last month, Hillary Clinton visited Georgia to defy the notion that better relations with Russia means the White House is dumping Georgia.
Mr. Dean consistently creates skating pieces -- for Stars on Ice as well as individual skaters -- that defy the notion of skating as a limited form.
Being Human deserves a place because it contains hundreds of amazing poems by poets of all generations and cultures that defy the notion of a western canon that privileges the select few over the many.
With visits to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Arlington National Cemetery, it was to be a sobering journey, a preproduction reality check as they embarked on an Iraq War-related movie hoping to defy the notion of a box-office curse against such movies.
The series -- which captures Nora's beauty, confidence, style and sexuality -- aims to defy the notion that women become invisible as they age.
Mr. Coombs suggested that those comments defied the notion that Private Manning would have sought to aid the enemy.
A lightweight box covered in ducts and pipes, it defied the notion that cultural architecture should be solid, monumental, intimidating.
And with a passport that has acquired roughly two dozen stamps in the last two years, Uihlein defies the notion of the geographically challenged American.
They brought a shock of subversion to the genre — defying the notion that children's books shouldn't be scary, silly or sophisticated.
