OBEDIENCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Obedience

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/oʊbˈidiəns/ Listen

noun

Obedience n.

The act of obeying, or the state of being obedient; compliance with that which is required by authority; subjection to rightful restraint or control. "Government must compel the obedience of individuals."

Words or actions denoting submission to authority; dutifulness.

(Eccl.)

(a)

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.

(b)

A cell (or offshoot of a larger monastery) governed by a prior.

(c)

One of the three monastic vows.

(d)

The written precept of a superior in a religious order or congregation to a subject.

Canonical obedience. See under Canonical.

Passive obedience. See under Passive.

See images of 'Obedience'

Etymology of 'Obedience'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Obedience" Quotes from Famous Books

... supplicated the council for liberty to his father to come to him; which being granted, his father came next night, to whom he discoursed a little concerning obedience to parents from the fifth commandment, and then, after prayer, his father said to him, "Hugh, I called thee a goodly olive tree, of fair fruit, and now a storm hath destroyed the tree and his fruit."——He ...

— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie

... every movement of those below, too intently interested to talk, yet unable for some time to determine clearly what was impending. Occasionally the sound of a voice reached them, shouting orders in Spanish, and men came and went in obedience to the commands. More guns were brought forth from the bunk-house, and distributed; the single horseman rode swiftly up the valley, and a half-dozen of the fellows lugged a heavy timber up from the corral, ...

— The Strange Case of Cavendish • Randall Parrish

... about the spontaneous origin of organisms, another as to what else there is in protoplasm, and so on, the common people have been in need of spiritual food; and the unsuccessful and rejected of art and science, in obedience to the mandate of adventurers who have in view the sole aim of profit, have begun to furnish the people with this spiritual food, and still so furnish them. For the last forty years in Europe, and for the last ten years with us here in Russia, millions of books and ...

— What To Do? - thoughts evoked by the census of Moscow • Count Lyof N. Tolstoi

... but obedience in the matter, and Conyngham was soon between the blankets, alternately shivering and burning in the first ...

— In Kedar's Tents • Henry Seton Merriman

... of and admire my son's steady obedience to his leader, I cannot but regret and wonder that in this particular instance he was not more resolute in remonstrance. It bears out what I said to Mr. Burke on taking leave of him: "If you ask his advice, take it; but he will never offer ...

— Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia • William John Wills

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