Obey vs Apply - What's the difference?
obey | apply |
To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of.
To do as one is told.
(obsolete) To be obedient, compliant (to a given law, restriction etc.).
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.iv:
To lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another);—with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.
* {{quote-book
, author=
, title=Translation of Virgil's Aeneid
, passage=He said, and to the sword his throat applied .
, year=1697}}
To put to use; to use or employ for a particular purpose, or in a particular case; to appropriate; to devote; as, to apply money to the payment of a debt.
To make use of, declare, or pronounce, as suitable, fitting, or relative; as, to apply the testimony to the case; to apply an epithet to a person.
* (rfdate) Milton,
To fix closely; to engage and employ diligently, or with attention; to attach; to incline.
* 1611 , '', ''Proverbs 23:12,
To betake; to address; to refer; generally used reflexively.
* Alexander Pope
* (rfdate) Johnson
To submit oneself as a candidate (with the adposition "to" designating the recipient of the submission, and the adposition "for" designating the position).
To pertain or be relevant to a specified individual or group.
(obsolete) To busy; to keep at work; to ply.
* Sir Philip Sidney
(obsolete) To visit.
* Chapman
In lang=en terms the difference between obey and apply
is that obey is to do as one is told while apply is to pertain or be relevant to a specified individual or group.As verbs the difference between obey and apply
is that obey is to do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of while apply is to lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another);—with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.As an adjective apply is
.obey
English
Verb
(en verb)- They were all taught by Triton, to obay / To the long raynes, at her commaundement [...].
Antonyms
* disobey * defy * rebel * resist * violate (especially rules )External links
* * 1000 English basic wordsapply
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) applier, ((etyl) appliquer), from (etyl) . See applicant, ply.Verb
(en-verb)- Yet God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied .
- Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
- sacred vows applied to grisly Pluto
- I applied myself to him for help.
- I recently applied to the tavern for a job as a bartender.
- Most of the colleges she applied to were ones she thought she had a good chance of getting into.
- Many of them don't know it, but almost a third of the inmates are eligible to apply for parole or work-release programs.
- That rule only applies to foreigners.
- She was skillful in applying his humours.
- His armour was so clear, / And he applied each place so fast, that like a lightning thrown / Out of the shield of Jupiter, in every eye he shone.