the act of obeying; dutiful or submissive behavior with respect to another person
<noun.act>
the trait of being willing to obey
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behavior intended to please your parents
<noun.act> their children were never very strong on obedience he went to law school out of respect for his father's wishes
Obedience \O*be"di*ence\, n. [F. ob['e]dience, L. obedientia, oboedientia. See {Obedient}, and cf. {Obeisance}.] 1. 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. --Ames.
2. Words or actions denoting submission to authority; dutifulness. --Shak.
3. (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. --Shipley. (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}.
Priory \Pri"o*ry\, n.; pl. {Priories}. [Cf. LL. prioria. See {Prior}, n.] A religious house presided over by a prior or prioress; -- sometimes an offshoot of, an subordinate to, an abbey, and called also {cell}, and {obedience}. See {Cell}, 2.
Note: Of such houses there were two sorts: one where the prior was chosen by the inmates, and governed as independently as an abbot in an abbey; the other where the priory was subordinate to an abbey, and the prior was placed or displaced at the will of the abbot.
{Alien priory}, a small religious house dependent on a large monastery in some other country.
Syn: See {Cloister}.
This supply-side fruitcake system collapsed with the reforms of Vatican II, which largely did away with the "blind obedience" under which so many tons of cake were not so much devoured as swallowed as quickly as possible.
Instead, it ordered an increase in Marxist education, closer supervision of the party's 18 million members, tightened discipline and absolute obedience to central party officials.
She demands obedience, punishes offenders and rants insanely.
Members of the group take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Mrs. Nusbaum attributed her longevity to her strict obedience to a biblical command, Betty Nusbaum said. "She honored her father and mother.
A born-again Baptist and the mother of three children, she said "obedience to God" prompted her to come forward and recant her accusations.
"We call it moral obedience.
He told them not to let unthinking obedience to authority dull their sense of right and wrong.
The military announced it was replacing its top-ranking officers and said it had abolished the section in which the Communist Party ensured obedience from the military.
She's taken her vows of obedience so she goes where the church sends her.
Perhaps, then, this portrait is a dynastic statement and the young lady is demanding our approbation for her filial obedience. This graceful and important picture is just back from cleaning and conservation which is the reason for its presence in London.
"Willie expected blind obedience," Kenneth says.
The marriage gets off to a good start but is soon threatened by Ellen's inability to trust her own instincts in matters sexual, and her blind obedience to her Jesuit confessor.
All of this changed in 1982, when the large modern sector of society calculated the cost of obedience to the PRI.
A Mormon Church apostle on Saturday apologized for the leadership's human frailties, brought on by old age, but issued a call for obedience to church decrees.
Robertson _ open The former underboss of the Cleveland mob says narcotics trafficking has broken down the once iron-clad obedience that U.S. organized crime members had for their leaders.
And he drew parallels between blind obedience to orders in the Nazi era and in communist East Germany.