Obedience

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: o=be=di=ence

CIDE DICTIONARY

Obedience, n. [F. obédience, L. obedientia, oboedientia. See Obedient, and cf. Obeisance.].

•  The act of obeying, or the state of being obedient; compliance with that which is required by authority; subjection to rightful restraint or control.  [1913 Webster]

  "Government must compel the obedience of individuals."  [1913 Webster]
•  Words or actions denoting submission to authority; dutifulness.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  A following; a body of adherents; as, the Roman Catholic obedience, or the whole body of persons who submit to the authority of the pope.  [1913 Webster]

Canonical obedience. See under Canonical. -- Passive obedience. See under Passive.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Obedience, n.
1 obeying as an act or practice or quality.
2 submission to another's rule or authority.
3 compliance with a law or command.
4 Eccl. a compliance with a monastic rule. b a sphere of authority (the Roman obedience).

Idiom

in obedience to actuated by or in accordance with.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L obedientia (as OBEY)

THESAURUS

Obedience

Quakerism, acceptance, accommodation, accord, accordance, acquiescence, adaptability, adaptation, adaption, adjustment, agreeability, agreeableness, agreement, amenability, assent, complaisance, compliance, conformance, conformation other-direction, conformity, congruity, consent, consistency, conventionality, correspondence, deference, docility, dutifulness, flexibility, harmony, homage, humbleness, humility, keeping, kneeling, line, malleability, meekness, nonopposal, nonopposition, nonresistance, nonviolent resistance, obeisance, observance, orthodoxy, passive resistance, passiveness, passivity, pliancy, quietism, reconcilement, reconciliation, resignation, resignedness, respect, respectfulness, strictness, subjection, submission, submissiveness, submittal, subservience, supineness, tractability, traditionalism, uncomplainingness, uniformity, yielding

ROGET THESAURUS

Obedience

Submission

N submission, yielding, nonresistance, obedience, surrender, cession, capitulation, resignation, backdown, obeisance, homage, kneeling, genuflexion, courtesy, curtsy, kowtow, prostration, surrendering, submissive, resigned, crouching, downtrodden, down on one's marrow bones, on one's bended knee, unresistant, unresisting, nonresisting, pliant, undefended, untenable, indefensible, humble, have it your own way, it can't be helped, amen, da locum melioribus, tempori parendum.

Obedience

N obedience, observance, compliance, submission, subjection, nonresistance, passiveness, resignation, allegiance, loyalty, fealty, homage, deference, devotion, constancy, fidelity, submissness, submissiveness, ductility, obsequiousness, obedient, complying, compliant, loyal, faithful, devoted, at one's call, at one's command, at one's orders, at one's beck and call, under beck and call, under control, restrainable, resigned, passive, submissive, henpecked, pliant, unresisted, obediently, in compliance with, in obedience to, to hear is to obey, as you please, if you please, your wish is my command, as you wish, no sooner said than done.

Subjection

N subjection, dependence, dependency, subordination, thrall, thralldom, thraldom, enthrallment, subjugation, bondage, serfdom, feudalism, feudality, vassalage, villenage, slavery, enslavement, involuntary servitude, conquest, service, servitude, servitorship, tendence, employ, tutelage, clientship, liability, constraint, oppression, yoke, submission, obedience, subject, dependent, subordinate, feudal, feudatory, in subjection to, under control, in leading strings, in harness, subjected, enslaved, constrained, downtrodden, overborne, overwhelmed, under the lash, on the hip, led by the nose, henpecked, the puppet of, the sport of, the plaything of, under one's orders, under one's command, under one's thumb, a slave to, at the mercy of, in the power of, in the hands of, in the clutches of, at the feet of, at one's beck and call, liable, parasitical, stipendiary, under, slaves - in a land of light and law.

Observance

N observance, performance, compliance, acquiescence, concurrence, obedience, fulfillment, satisfaction, discharge, acquittance, acquittal, adhesion, acknowledgment, fidelity, exact, observance, observant, faithful, true, loyal, honorable, true as the dial to the sun, true as the needle to the pole, punctual, punctilious, literal, as good as one's word, faithfully, ignoscito saepe alteri nunquam tibi, tempori parendum, to God, thy country, and thy friend be true.