DISOBEY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does disobey mean? 

• DISOBEY (verb)
  The verb DISOBEY has 1 sense:

1. refuse to go along with; refuse to follow; be disobedient

  Familiarity information: DISOBEY used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISOBEY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they disobey    ... he / she / it disobeys   
Past simple: disobeyed   
Past participle: disobeyed   
-ing form: disobeying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Refuse to go along with; refuse to follow; be disobedient

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

He disobeyed his supervisor and was fired

Hypernyms (to "disobey" is one way to...):

decline; refuse (show unwillingness towards)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disobey"):

sit in (participate in an act of civil disobedience)

counteract; countermine; sabotage; subvert; undermine; weaken (destroy property or hinder normal operations)

balk; baulk; jib; resist (refuse to comply)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Antonym:

obey (be obedient to)

Derivation:

disobedience (the failure to obey)

disobedient (not obeying or complying with commands of those in authority)

disobedient (unwilling to submit to authority)

 Context examples 

I didn’t dare to disobey him.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Count's warning came into my mind, but I took a pleasure in disobeying it.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You do not know him; but I can tell you he is not a man to disobey as I have disobeyed him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As to me, I had my orders to take his place from the only man upon earth whose word I have never disobeyed.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Both men were wounded, and he was thrashing them both for having disobeyed his orders and crippled themselves in advance of the hunting season.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Therefore, he had disobeyed the will of both the gods, and earned the consequent punishment.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I was on the point of risking Mr. Rochester's displeasure by disobeying his orders, when the light once more gleamed dimly on the gallery wall, and I heard his unshod feet tread the matting.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the general assembly in this country is expressed by the word hnhloayn, which signifies an exhortation, as near as I can render it; for they have no conception how a rational creature can be compelled, but only advised, or exhorted; because no person can disobey reason, without giving up his claim to be a rational creature.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Wilfully had it disobeyed and won my eyes to speech, and now it was winning my tongue—ay, and my lips, for they were mad this moment to kiss the two small hands which had toiled so faithfully and hard.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)