Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Obey

Obey , transitive verb

[Old English obeyen, French obéir, from Latin obedire, oboedire; ob (see Ob-) + audire to hear. See Audible, and compare Obeisance.]

1.
To give ear to; to execute the commands of; to yield submission to; to comply with the orders of.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord. — Eph. vi. 1
Was she the God, that her thou didst obey? — Milton
2.
To submit to the authority of; to be ruled by.
My will obeyed his will. — Chaucer
Afric and India shall his power obey. — Dryden
3.
To yield to the impulse, power, or operation of; as, a ship obeys her helm.

Obey , intransitive verb

To give obedience.
Will he obey when one commands? — Tennyson
His servants ye are, to whom ye obey. — Rom. vi. 16
He commanded the trumpets to sound: to which the two brave knights obeying, they performed their courses. — Sir. P. Sidney

By some old writers obey was used, as in the French idiom, with the preposition to.