obedience

obedience
    n 1: the act of obeying; dutiful or submissive behavior with
         respect to another person [syn: {obedience}, {obeisance}]
         [ant: {disobedience}, {noncompliance}]
    2: the trait of being willing to obey [ant: {disobedience}]
    3: behavior intended to please your parents; "their children
       were never very strong on obedience"; "he went to law school
       out of respect for his father's wishes" [syn: {obedience},
       {respect}]
    

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.
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            Government must compel the obedience of individuals.
                                                  --Ames.
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   2. Words or actions denoting submission to authority;
      dutifulness. --Shak.
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   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.
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   {Canonical obedience}. See under {Canonical}.

   {Passive obedience}. See under {Passive}.
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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.
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   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.
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   {Alien priory}, a small religious house dependent on a large
      monastery in some other country.
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   Syn: See {Cloister}.
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68 Moby Thesaurus words for "obedience":
      Quakerism, acceptance, accommodation, accord, accordance,
      acquiescence, adaptability, adaptation, adaption, adjustment,
      agreeability, agreeableness, agreement, amenability, assent,
      complaisance, compliance, conformance,
      conformation other-direction, conformity, congruity, consent,
      consistency, conventionality, correspondence, deference, docility,
      dutifulness, flexibility, harmony, homage, humbleness, humility,
      keeping, kneeling, line, malleability, meekness, nonopposal,
      nonopposition, nonresistance, nonviolent resistance, obeisance,
      observance, orthodoxy, passive resistance, passiveness, passivity,
      pliancy, quietism, reconcilement, reconciliation, resignation,
      resignedness, respect, respectfulness, strictness, subjection,
      submission, submissiveness, submittal, subservience, supineness,
      tractability, traditionalism, uncomplainingness, uniformity,
      yielding