Obey vs Discern - What's the difference?
obey | discern |
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 detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.
* {{quote-book
, year=1875
, author=Jules Verne
, title=The Survivors of the Chancellor
, chapter=1
To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry.
* {{quote-book
, year=1842
, author=Charles Dickens
, title=American Notes for General Circulation
To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate.
* {{quote-book
, year=1651
, author=Thomas Hobbes
, title=Leviathan
To perceive differences.
In lang=en terms the difference between obey and discern
is that obey is to do as one is told while discern is to perceive differences.As verbs the difference between obey and discern
is that obey is to do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of while discern is to detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.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 wordsdiscern
English
Verb
(en verb)citation, passage=Meanwhile the brig had altered her tack, and was moving slowly to the east. Three hours later and the keenest eye could not have discerned her top-sails above the horizon.}}
citation, passage=If they discern' any evidences of wrong-going in any direction that I have indicated, they will acknowledge that I had reason in what I wrote. If they ' discern no such thing, they will consider me altogether mistaken.}}
citation, passage=The severity of judgement, they say, makes men censorious and unapt to pardon the errors and infirmities of other men: and on the other side, celerity of fancy makes the thoughts less steady than is necessary to discern exactly between right and wrong.}}
- He was too young to discern right from wrong.