follow

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to obey someone or something
obeyChildren must obey their parents.
followAll religions guide youths to follow the teachings of elders and parents.
complyThere are serious penalties for failure to comply with the regulations.
observePeople must observe the law.
adhere toThey failed to adhere to the terms of the agreement.
abide byPlayers must abide by the referee's decision.
The court issued a contempt citation against city council members who refused to comply with a court order.法庭对拒不遵守法庭命令的的市议会成员们发出了藐视法庭的传票。
He was happy to comply without any further urging from me.
He was jailed for refusing to comply with the court order.
The builders have not complied with the architect's instructions.
She had very set views about the funeral, and everyone was happy to comply with her wishes.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Obeying & breaking the law
abide
abide by something
adhere
adhere to something
afoul
bac
buck
commission
contravene
derogation
disobey
enforcer
fall foul of somethingidiom
go by the book
guiltiness
guilty
infringement
shalt
venal
violation

comply | American Dictionary

comply
verb[ I ]
 fmlus/kəmˈplɑɪ/
to obey an order, rule, or request:
Comosa says he will comply with the judge’s ruling.

compliance

noun[ U ]us/kəmˈplɑɪ·əns/
fml
The company said that it had always acted in compliance with environmental laws.

comply | Business English

comply
verb[ I ]
uk /kəmˈplaɪ/us
LAW
to obey a particular rule or law, or act according to an agreement:
comply with sthThe state's mining law requires mine operators to comply with local land use regulations.

Examples of comply

comply
When asked about their prescribing habits, just 60% were found to actually comply with the recommendations (range, 10% to 95%, depending on the item).
Does the maneuver, procedure, or service do more good than harm to people who fully comply with the associated recommendations or treatment?
People can set up a so-called organ will, but relatives may refuse to comply with the will.
Many of those applicants who currently comply with existing standards are making investments in advance of new, stricter standards.
Manufacturers must comply with standards intended to make the equipment safe: users must operate equipment in an appropriate and safe manner.
To comply with current regulations multi-storey buildings must be protected from progressive collapse.
The failure to comply with their duties is merely evidence of their unfitness for office. 40.
There are many silly, corrupt, or evil practices that would "cease to exist" if the participants did not generally comply with certain putative norms.
Never-married women were particularly vulnerable to social exclusion and destitution, because they had not complied with the cultural norms (adat) of marriage and raising children.
Food handlers should be supervised to ensure that they comply with strict rules of hygiene and in particular that their hands are clean.
The writer can choose to comply or resist conventions related to who they are allowed to be, what they express and how.
This raises the obvious question of what the motives of the complying men were.
Furthermore, machined jaws may not precisely comply with the specified maximal contact geometry.
When the expected marginal penalty exceeds the marginal abatement costs of the source, it will choose to comply with its emission permits.
There are compelling arguments that firms are motivated to comply with standards by non-economic factors such as their public image.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.