Other forms: disobeyed, disobeying, disobeys
To disobey is to refuse to do as you are told. Disobey an order, disobey the rules, dare to disobey.
It is stronger than ignore because it implies knowing the instruction and going against it. In the armed forces, disobeying a lawful order is a specific offence — and the word lawful is doing a great deal of work there, since a manifestly unlawful order must be disobeyed. Note disobedience, disobedient; and civil disobedience, which is deliberate public law-breaking as a form of protest.
1verbdisobeyTo refuse to do as you are told.
“The dog disobeyed me and ran straight into the pond.”
disobey is a refusal to comply.
Old French desobeir is des- plus obeir, from Latin oboedire, to listen towards. To obey is to listen, so to disobey is to refuse to.
Old French
desobeir
English, today
disobey
From Old French desobeir.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA