obey

verb

ō-ˈbā 

ə-

obeyed; obeying

transitive verb

1

: to follow the commands or guidance of

He always obeys his parents.

2

: to conform to or comply with

obey an order

Falling objects obey the laws of physics.

intransitive verb

: to behave obediently

The dog does not always obey.

obeyer noun

Synonyms of obey

• follow

Examples of obey in a Sentence

His dog has learned to obey several commands.

He always obeys his parents.

The children must obey the rules.

The children must learn to obey.

Recent Examples on the Web

If the manager tells the maintenance vendor to repair a broken item tomorrow, but a director says to wait for further instructions, and still another director says not to repair it but to put some fresh paint on it, whom does the vendor obey? —Kelly G. Richardson, Oc Register, 30 Jan. 2026

Tobias Gonzalez Garcia, 29, is facing charges of resisting an officer without violence and failure to obey police, according to his arrest report. —Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald, 29 Jan. 2026

The usual assumption has been that if a user overtly instructs AI to act as a delusion-invoking collaborator, the AI simply obeys those commands. —Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026

Researchers from the University of Vienna and the University of Duisburg-Essen showed that metallic nanoparticles made of thousands of sodium atoms still obey the rules of quantum mechanics. —Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 22 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English obeien, borrowed from Anglo-French obeir, going back to Latin oboedīre, from ob- "toward, in the direction of" + -oedīre, probably unstressed form (with -oe- of uncertain origin) of audīre "to hear" — more at ob-, audible entry 1

Note: The -oe- in oboedīre is peculiar both because it is not the expected result of -au- in a non-initial syllable (the regular outcome is -ū-) and because -oe- is in any case rare non-initially. Various attempts have been made to account for the irregularity. Reflecting earlier suggestions, Michiel de Vaan hypothesizes pre-Latin *ób-awizdijō > *obowizdijō > *oboizdijō (rounding of a before w, which is then lost, prior to the weakening of a to u) > oboediō (with z blocking monophthongization of -oi- to -ū- before succumbing to cluster reduction) (see Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, Brill, 2008). As an alternative to assumptions of questionable phonetic change, it has also been suggested that a base other than audīre is at issue (Michael Weiss suggests *ob-b^hoi̯diō, from a nominal derivative of the base of fīdere "to trust" [see faith entry 1]; see Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, 2nd edition, Ann Arbor, 2020, p. 130).

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Rhymes for obey

• airway
• allay
• archway
• array
• ashtray
• astray
• aue
• away
• ballet
• belay
• beltway
• beret

Kids Definition

obey

verb

ō-ˈbā 

ə-

obeyed; obeying

1

a

: to follow the commands or guidance of

obeyed her parents

b

: to be obedient

trained the dog to obey

2

: to act in agreement with : carry out

obey an order

obey the rules