obedienceo‧be‧di‧ence /əˈbiːdiəns/ ●○○ noun [uncountable] 
obedience to Godin obedience to something He lived in obedience to the church’s teachings.blind/unquestioning/complete obedience (=complete obedience without any thought) With blind obedience, I allowed my father to organize my life. obedience classes for dogs and their ownersCOLLOCATIONSadjectivesblind obedience (=when you obey rules or a person without thinking about why)· I followed my father's commands with blind obedience.unquestioning obedience (=when you obey rules or a person without questioning whether they are right)· Even soldiers must not follow all orders with unquestioning obedience.absolute/complete/total obedience· The King required absolute obedience.verbsdemand/expect obedience· Parents should not demand unquestioning obedience from their children.owe somebody obedience· The knights owed obedience to their king.swear obedience· Monks swore obedience to the pope.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- The General demanded absolute obedience from his men.
- Young children are expected to show obedience to their parents.
- As abbot of Bec, Anselm had owed obedience to several superiors whose permission he had sought before accepting the archbishopric.
- But on the two matters on which his own personal obedience was required there was no room for compromise.
- How then can we encourage obedience?
- In a court in which obsequious obedience to the monarch was the rule.
- In this capacity he was entitled to obedience from the subjects whose welfare he served.
- The changes are about how to discipline and the reasons for requiring obedience to certain rules.
- With young children, teaching obedience to rules requires knowledge of three matters: Does he or she know what to do?
- Women were bound to absolute obedience to their Promise Keeper husbands and fathers.
Longman Language Activatoralways doing what you are told to do
someone who is obedient always does what their parents, teachers, or people in authority tell them to do - use this especially about children: · Bruno was a quiet and obedient little boy.· Research shows that pupils who are good at maths tend to be more conformist and obedient than other pupils. obedient to: · The majority of people were obedient to the King, not questioning his government.
obedient behaviour: obedience to: · Young children are expected to show obedience to their parents.absolute/complete/total obedience: · The General demanded absolute obedience from his men.
always obeying the law because you think this is the right thing to do: · These men are all decent, tax-paying, law-abiding people.· There is a tendency to look back at a time when people were more peaceful and law-abiding.
always doing what you are expected to do and always behaving in a loyal and obedient way: · Tom Campbell has been a loyal and dutiful employee of this firm for 25 years.· She rejected the traditional female roles of docile daughter and dutiful wife.
a group of people that is disciplined has developed obedience or has been trained to be obedient: · They are a well-trained, disciplined and efficient fighting force.well-disciplined: · The workforce is well-disciplined and eager to work.
too willing to do what you are told to do always willing to do what someone tells you to do even if it is unpleasant or they ask you in an unpleasant way: · My father was a violent, demanding man, who expected my mother to be completely submissive.· If you constantly try to make someone happy, you end up becoming submissive, saying yes when you don't really mean it.
informal someone who always agrees with and obeys their employer or leader etc: · It's no good applying for a job with him unless you're happy being a yes-man.· She packed the committees with yes-men and then did just what she liked.
obeying someone too eagerly and showing them too much respect: · The driver asked in a servile tone for more instructions.· He was young and hard-working, though annoyingly servile.
someone who is subservient is always willing to do what people tell them to do and behaves as if they expect to be told what to do: · The waiter had an excessively subservient manner that made us very uncomfortable.subservient to: · What she hated about being a nurse was having to be so subservient to doctors.
: slavish obedience/compliance/conformity etc obeying much too easily without thinking or asking questions: · The women's slavish obedience disgusted me.· He was able to manipulate their slavish willingness to serve in the name of patriotism.
too obedient because you are used to obeying people or because you are afraid not to obey: · It's depressing to see an intelligent, spirited young woman like her turning into a meek and compliant wife.· Patients who are less compliant may be forced to take medication against their will.
when someone does whatever someone else tells them to do, without thinking for themselves about whether it is right or wrong: · With blind obedience, I allowed Victor to organize my life.
someone who is always too willing to do what someone else, especially someone in authority, tells them to do, even when this is wrong: · Many employees regarded Human Resources staff as little more than management lackeys.· Some poeple in the UK were worried that their country might be regarded as simply being a lackey of the US.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYadjectives The people were expected to give their leader absolute obedience and loyalty.
(=when you obey rules or a person without thinking about why)· I followed my father's commands with blind obedience.
(=when you obey rules or a person without questioning whether they are right)· Even soldiers must not follow all orders with unquestioning obedience.
· The King required absolute obedience.
verbs· Parents should not demand unquestioning obedience from their children.
· The knights owed obedience to their king.
· Monks swore obedience to the pope.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES The people were expected to give their leader absolute obedience and loyalty.· They swore an oath of allegiance to the crown.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE· The covenant will be an affair of the heart, not just blind obedience to the Law.· Safety is a matter of active attention and alert work practices, not blind obedience to arbitrary rules.· I followed his commands with blind obedience, never bothering to question what his purpose might have been.
· Mary accepted the message of the angel with complete trust and obedience.· The totalitarian political system demands complete obedience to its extensive rules regarding culture, economics, religion, and morality.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- Faith ceases to be laudable when it is blind faith.
- I followed his commands with blind obedience, never bothering to question what his purpose might have been.
- It was not blind faith that drove them to change the world, but a belief very well grounded in reality.
- Memes for blind faith have their own ruthless ways of propagating themselves.
- Safety is a matter of active attention and alert work practices, not blind obedience to arbitrary rules.
- The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.
- Then you reposed an absolutely blind faith in the Emperor!
- This is true of patriotic and political as well as religious blind faith.
WORD FAMILYnounobedience ≠ disobedienceadjectiveobedient ≠ disobedientverbobey ≠ disobeyadverbobediently ≠ disobediently
when someone does what they are told to do, or what a law, rule etc says they must do OPP disobedienceobedience to obedience to Godin obedience to something He lived in obedience to the church’s teachings.blind/unquestioning/complete obedience (=complete obedience without any thought) With blind obedience, I allowed my father to organize my life. obedience classes for dogs and their ownersCOLLOCATIONSadjectivesblind obedience (=when you obey rules or a person without thinking about why)· I followed my father's commands with blind obedience.unquestioning obedience (=when you obey rules or a person without questioning whether they are right)· Even soldiers must not follow all orders with unquestioning obedience.absolute/complete/total obedience· The King required absolute obedience.verbsdemand/expect obedience· Parents should not demand unquestioning obedience from their children.owe somebody obedience· The knights owed obedience to their king.swear obedience· Monks swore obedience to the pope.