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Obey

//əʊˈbeɪ// verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of. transitive

    "obey the rules"

  2. 2
    be obedient to wordnet
  3. 3
    To do as one is told. intransitive

    "Soldiers are trained to obey."

  4. 4
    To be obedient, compliant (to a given law, restriction etc.). intransitive, obsolete

    "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).

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