OBEY

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (verb)

Verb forms

Present simple: I / you / we / they obey ... he / she / it obeys

Past simple: obeyed

Past participle: obeyed

-ing form: obeying

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be obedient to

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "obey" is one way to...):

adapt; adjust; conform (adapt or conform oneself to new or different conditions)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "obey"):

abide by; comply; follow (act in accordance with someone's rules, commands, or wishes)

take orders (receive and be expected to follow directions or commands)

heed; listen; mind (pay close attention to; give heed to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Antonym:

disobey (refuse to go along with; refuse to follow; be disobedient)

Derivation:

obedience (the act of obeying; dutiful or submissive behavior with respect to another person)

obedience (the trait of being willing to obey)

obedient (dutifully complying with the commands or instructions of those in authority)

obeisance (the act of obeying; dutiful or submissive behavior with respect to another person)

Credits

Context examples:

“We have all orders to obey him.”

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He ordered me angrily to my room, and this time I obeyed him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Peters had suddenly vanished into the house, and they obeyed these new orders.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I command you to obey him as you would me.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I told him “he should be obeyed.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"Ah! now you are coming to reality," I said, as I obeyed her.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This was an order to be most joyfully obeyed; this was an act of kindness which Fanny felt at her heart.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He obeyed the mandate, walking up to the platform, as was the custom, and addressing the chairman.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In the morning I obeyed Holmes’s injunctions to the letter.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But his obeying the ordinary driving commands of the Alaskan trail is no demonstration that he is yours. Any dog in Alaska would obey you as he obeyed.