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obey - 5 dictionary results

o⋅bey

[oh-bey]
–verb (used with object)
1. to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions of: to obey one's parents.
2. to comply with or follow (a command, restriction, wish, instruction, etc.).
3. (of things) to respond conformably in action to: The car obeyed the slightest touch of the steering wheel.
4. to submit or conform in action to (some guiding principle, impulse, one's conscience, etc.).
–verb (used without object)
5. to be obedient: to agree to obey.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME obeien < OF obeir < L oboedīre, equiv. to ob- ob- + audīre to hear; -oe- for expected -ū- is unclear


o⋅bey⋅a⋅ble, adjective
o⋅bey⋅er, noun
o⋅bey⋅ing⋅ly, adverb
o·bey   (ō-bā')   
v.   o·beyed, o·bey·ing, o·beys

v.   tr.
  1. To carry out or fulfill the command, order, or instruction of.
  2. To carry out or comply with (a command, for example).
v.   intr.
To behave obediently.

[Middle English obeien, from Old French obeir, from Latin oboedīre, to listen to : ob-, to; see ob- + audīre, to hear; see au- in Indo-European roots.]
o·bey'er n.

Obey

O*bey"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Obeyed; p. pr. & vb. n. Obeying.] [OE. obeyen, F. ob['e]ir, fr. L. obedire, oboedire; ob (see Ob-) + audire to hear. See Audible, and cf. Obeisance.]

1. To give ear to; to execute the commands of; to yield submission to; to comply with the orders of.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord. --Eph. vi. 1.

Was she the God, that her thou didst obey? --Milton.

2. To submit to the authority of; to be ruled by.

My will obeyed his will. --Chaucer.

Afric and India shall his power obey. --Dryden.

3. To yield to the impulse, power, or operation of; as, a ship obeys her helm.

Obey

O*bey"\, v. i. To give obedience.

Will he obey when one commands? --Tennyson.

Note: By some old writers obey was used, as in the French idiom, with the preposition to.

His servants ye are, to whom ye obey. --Rom. vi. 16.

He commanded the trumpets to sound: to which the two brave knights obeying, they performed their courses. --Sir. P. Sidney.
Language Translation for : obey
Spanish: obedecer,
German: gehorchen,
Japanese: 従う

obey 
c.1290, from O.Fr. obeir, from L. oboedire "obey, pay attention to, give ear," lit. "listen to," from ob "to" + audire "listen, hear" (see audience). Same sense development is in cognate O.E. hiersumnian.
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