abide by

1. 1.

   act in accordance with someone's rules, commands, or wishes

   “He complied with my instructions”

   “You must comply or else!”

   “Follow these simple rules”

   “abide by the rules”

   Synonymscomplyfollow

   Broaderobey

   Narrowerobligetoe the lineconform to
2. 2.

   show respect towards

   “honor your parents!”

   Synonymsrespecthonorhonourobserve

   Broaderaccept

   Narrowerlionizetolerate

Questions about abide by

What does abide by mean?

abide by means "act in accordance with someone's rules, commands, or wishes". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for abide by?

Close synonyms include comply, follow, respect, honor, honour. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is abide by a common word?

abide by is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.