obey
verbcommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//əʊˈbeɪ//
- United Kingdom//əˈbeɪ//
- United States//oʊˈbeɪ//
- United States//əˈbeɪ//
- //ɵˈbe(j)//
To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
verb
- 1
To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
obey the rules
obey your boss
- 2
To do as one is told.
Soldiers are trained to obey.
- 3
obsoleteTo be obedient, compliant (to a given law, restriction etc.).
They were all taught by Triton, to obay / To the long raynes, at her commaundement [...].
Etymology
From Middle English obeyen, from Anglo-Norman obeir, obeier et al., Old French obeir, from Latin oboediō (also obēdiō (“to listen to, harken, usually in extended sense, obey, be subject to, serve”)), from ob- (“before, near”) + audiō (“to hear”). Compare audient. In Latin, ob + audire would have been expected to become Classical Latin *obūdiō (compare in + claudō becoming inclūdō), but it has been theorized that the usual law court associations of the word for obeying encouraged a false archaism from ū to oe, to oboediō (compare Old Latin oinos → Classical Latin ūnus).
Forms
- past tense
- obeyed
- past participle
- obeyed
- present participle
- obeying
- third person singular
- obeys
obey · To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
obituary · A brief notice of a person's death, especially one published…object · A thing that has physical existence but is not alive.objection · The act of objecting.