Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To refuse or fail to follow an order or rule.
  • intransitive verb To refuse or fail to obey (an order or rule).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To neglect or refuse to obey; transgress or violate a command or injunction of; refuse submission to: as, children disobey their parents; men disobey the laws.
  • To refuse obedience; disregard authority or command; violate rules or regulations.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To refuse or neglect to obey; to violate commands; to be disobedient.
  • transitive verb Not to obey; to neglect or refuse to obey (a superior or his commands, the laws, etc.); to transgress the commands of (one in authority); to violate, as an order

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To refuse to obey an order of (somebody).
  • verb intransitive To refuse to obey.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb refuse to go along with; refuse to follow; be disobedient

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English disobeien, from Old French desobeir, from Vulgar Latin *disobedīre : Latin dis-, dis- + Latin oboedīre, to obey; see obey.]

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