obey

obey, comply, mind are comparable when they mean to follow the wish, direction, or command of another.

Obey is the general term and implies ready or submissive yielding to the authority of another (as by the performance of his command or bidding) or subjection to a higher principle or to the agency, force, or impulse by which it is actuated

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honor and obey your father and mother

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the fiercest rebel against society . . . obeys most of its conventions— Muller

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in the feudal regime, disobedience to an order was treason—or even hesitation to obey— Henry Adams

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he marks how well the ship her helm obeys— Byron

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a wholesome and strenuous effort to obey at all costs the call of what was felt as "truth"— Ellis

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Comply, often with with, usually carries a stronger suggestion than obey of giving in to or yielding to a person's desires or expressed requests, the rules of an organization, the re-quirements of a law, or the conditions of one's environment

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she complied with them in order to get the instruction, but her own inner fancies broke through— Dodd

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It therefore often comes close to conform and accommodate and tends to imply complaisance, dependence, or lack of a strong opinion

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if he offered her any more sherry she would not be able to refuse, since all her instinct at this moment was to comply— West

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the rich woman can terrorize the poor woman by threatening to go to law with her if her demands are not complied with— Shaw

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on being invited by the brute to go outside, what could Gerald do but comply?—Bennett

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Mind, though often used in the sense of obey, especially in reference to children

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mind your mother, Bobby

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in a weaker sense carries the implication of heeding or attending to an expressed wish, demand, or command in order that one may comply with it

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now mind, mother, not a word about Uncle Richard yet— Lytton

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{

but if your reverence minds what my wife says, you won't go wrong— Macdonald

}

Analogous words: submit, *yield, defer, bow, succumb: accede, acquiesce, subscribe, agree, *assent

Antonyms: command, order