ENGLISH
REFERENCE

obeyed

v.
B1 Intermediate US //oʊˈbeɪd// UK //əʊbˈeɪd// obeyed

v. did what you were told to do by a person, a law, or a rule.

v. past tense and past participle of 'obey'; refers to the act of complying with an order, request, law, or authority.


SIMPLE

The dog obeyed its owner and sat down immediately.

CONTEXTUAL

The soldiers obeyed the command to retreat even though they wanted to continue the fight.

COMPLEX

Throughout the trial, the defendant maintained that he had simply obeyed the standing orders of his superiors, a defense that the international court ultimately rejected.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Usage

The verb is transitive and takes a direct object, though it can be used intransitively when the authority is implied.

Pitfall

he obeyed to the ruleshe obeyed the rulesObey is a transitive verb and does not take the preposition 'to'.

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