obey
Americanverb (used with object)
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to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions of.
to obey one's parents.
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to comply with or follow (a command, restriction, wish, instruction, etc.).
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(of things) to respond conformably in action to.
The car obeyed the slightest touch of the steering wheel.
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to submit or conform in action to (some guiding principle, impulse, one's conscience, etc.).
verb (used without object)
verb
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to carry out (instructions or orders); comply with (demands)
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to behave or act in accordance with (one's feelings, whims, etc)
Other Word Forms
- obeyable adjective
- obeyer noun
- obeyingly adverb
- unobeyed adjective
- unobeying adjective
- well-obeyed adjective
Etymology
Origin of obey
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English obeien, from Old French obeir, from Latin oboedīre, equivalent to ob- ob- + audīre “to hear”; -oe- for expected -ū- is unclear
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But Handsome was a friend, and Duane knew that Handsome preferred, as he put it, to obey the rules and etiquette of society in regard to the decorum of social gatherings both big and small.
From Literature
I obeyed all of Gran’s instructions and sat on the woven rug by the fire.
From Literature
A group of Chagossians are refusing to obey a removal order issued by British authorities, after landing on the Chagos Islands to protest against a deal to hand over the territory to Mauritius.
From BBC
In a sometimes tetchy exchange, Sherborne put to the former editor that a series of journalists did not obey the ban and continued paying private investigators and freelance journalists for unlawful information.
From BBC
It is about the importance to society of “obedience to the unenforceable”: “the obedience of a man to that which he cannot be forced to obey.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
