as in to follow
to act according to the commands of
she taught her dog to obey her when she said "Sit!" most people obey the law and wear their seat belts
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Recent Examples of obey
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
See All Example Sentences for 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
See All Example Sentences for obey
Recent Examples of Synonyms for obey
follow
Verb
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American figure skater Amber Glenn fired back at critics on Tuesday following her gold medal victory in the team event at the Winter Olympics.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
11 Feb. 2026
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That begins with limiting visibility, then challenging language and identity, followed by removing symbols.—
Michael Collins,
USA Today,
11 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Obey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/obey. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
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