obey
UK/əʊˈbeɪ//oʊˈbeɪ/
obey verb: to do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
Verb
obey (third-person singular simple present obeys, present participle obeying, simple past and past participle obeyed)
- To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
- obey the rules
- obey your boss
- To do as one is told.
- Soldiers are trained to obey.
- To be obedient, compliant (to a given law, restriction etc.).
- They were all taught by Triton, to obay / To the long raynes, at her commaundement [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
obey meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
obey in Hindi
- to do as ordered by
- आज्ञा मानना ājñā mānnā, आज्ञापालन ājñāpālan
- to do as one is told
- आज्ञापालन ājñāpālan
- to be obedient, compliant
- आज्ञाकारी ājñākārī
obey in Tamil
- கீழ்ப்படி, பணிந்து நட, கட்டுப்படு, அடிபணி, கீழ்ப்படிதல், அடங்கி இருத்தல்
obey in Marathi
- to obey
- मानणे mānṇe
obey in Urdu
- to do as ordered by
- اطاعت کرنا itā'at karnā
More languagesFewer languages
- obey in Bengali
- মানা mana
- obey in Malayalam
- അനുസരിക്കുക anusarikkuka
- obey in Kannada
- ಹೇಳಿದಂತೆ ಕೇಳು, ಅಪ್ಪಣೆ ನಡೆಸು, ಆಜ್ಞೆಪಾಲಿಸು, ವಿಧೇಯನಾಗಿರು
- obey in Gujarati
- પાળવું pāḷvũ
- obey in Odia
- ପାଳିବା pāḷibā
- obey in Sanskrit
- संज्ञा saṃjñā
- obey in Nepali
- मान्नु mānnu
- obey in Arabic
- أَطَاعَ ʔaṭāʕa
- obey in Persian
- اطاعت کردن etâ'at kardan
- obey in Thai
- เชื่อฟัง chʉ̂ʉa-fang
- obey in Vietnamese
- phục tùng, tuân theo, vâng lời
- obey in Myanmar
- နားထောင် na:htaung, ပန်ရွက် panrwak
Examples of obey in a sentence
- It is no defence to plead that you were only obeying orders.
- She said you had not to talk to me, but you don't have to obey her anymore.
- Show us your lordly might: demonstrate that you can order people and get them to obey.
Synonyms of obey
Antonyms
Forms of obey
| third-person singular present | obeys |
|---|---|
| present participle | obeying |
| past participle | obeyed |
| past | obeyed |
Origin of obey
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).
Words formed from obey
Words that rhyme with obey
Questions about obey
- What does obey mean?
- Obey means to do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
- What is obey in Hindi?
- Obey in Hindi is आज्ञा मानना (ājñā mānnā), आज्ञापालन (ājñāpālan), आज्ञाकारी (ājñākārī). See Obey meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is obey?
- Obey is a verb.
- How do you pronounce obey?
- Obey is pronounced /əʊˈbeɪ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of obey?
- The past tense of obey is obeyed.
Words near obey in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: obey (page history and authors); obey (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); मानणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); মানা (Bengali) (page history and authors); obey (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); પાળવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ପାଳିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); संज्ञा (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); मान्नु (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-obey.ogg.
Cite this entry: “obey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/obey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.