Fellow defyin' official (8)
I believe the answer is:
mandarin
'official' is the definition.
(mandarin is a kind of official)
'fellow defyin'' is the wordplay.
'fellow' becomes 'man' (I've seen this before).
'defyin'' becomes 'darin' ('daring' said like 'defying' was; 'dare' can be a synonym of 'defy').
'man'+'darin'='MANDARIN'
(Other definitions for mandarin that I've seen before include "Top civil servant" , "Small citrus fruit" , "High-ranking bureaucrat" , "High official in imperial China and a fruit" , "High-ranking official or small orange" .)