disobeyance

English

Etymology

From Middle English disobeyaunce, equivalent to disobey +‎ -ance.

Noun

disobeyance (countable and uncountable, plural disobeyances)

1. (uncommon) Synonym of disobedience.
   • 1749, The History of Scotland; from 1436 to 1565. […] To Which Is Added a Continuation, by Another Hand, till August 1604., 2nd edition, Glasgow: […] R. Urie, page 349:

     The governor and queen were highly commoved hereat; therefore they cauſed ſummon the doers of this fact, to compear within ſix days to underly the law; and, upon their diſobeyance, denounced them to the horn.

   • 1875 July 10, “Regulations for Wimbledon”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume LXIX, London: […] Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., […], page 9, column 1:

     Officers ordered to attend Full Dress Parade, will not appear in white neck-ties, lavender kid gloves, and swallow-tailed coats. A projected visit to the Opera (after the Parade has been dismissed) will not in future be accepted as an excuse for disobeyance of this order.

   • 1880 April 19, “[Sunday Services. The Military at the Baptist Church. Miss Mary Merrill’s Funeral Sermon.] Bible Christian Church.”, in Daily Intelligencer, volume 13, number 296, Belleville, Ont., page [2], column 4:

     A man’s heart accustoms itself to vice because he becomes as dead to it; so also does one become accustomed to drink and like evil. Thus do men become disobedient; thus do men become mockers; despisers of religion and infidels. The latter become so on account of practice and habit and a disobeyance of the will of God.

   • 1901, Eugene H[alsey] Wood, “Authority; the Correct Concept”, in Three New Concepts; Religion and Authority: The Correct Concepts; Also, A Hitherto Unnamed Mental Faculty, Chicago, Ill.: […] Robert E. Wood, Thesis II, page 30:

     All disobeyances, all offenses, all crimes are done in opposition to, in resistance of the commands of authority.

   • 1929, “[Fall 1928—Albion College at Last] Excerpts from the 1929 Susanna Wesley Annual: Reprinted with permission of Albion College”, in Mary Ann Althaver, Shaky Apron Strings: A Legacy of Love in Letters, LELA Publishers, published 2015, →ISBN, page 230:

     Wearing dresses backwards was another feature of the week. The disobeyance of this and several other senior rules were brought up before the sophomore court, held in a very solemn atmosphere, where such penalties were placed upon the accused as wearing their hair in seven braids and carrying French dolls the following day.

   • 1937 December, William Stern with Jean MacDonald, “Cloud Pictures: A New Method for Testing Imagination”, in Character and Personality: An International Psychological Quarterly, volume VI, number 2, page 143:

     The Rorschach Test requires that the whole series of ten pictures be presented at one sitting. Although in disobeyance of this rule we divided the series into two groups of five pictures each, we often observed distinct fatigue and a tendency for the perseveration of responses.

   • 1991, Kathryn Thompson, “The Sisters Almeda and Alfreda”, in Close Your Eyes and Think of Dublin: Portrait of a Girl (On the Edge: New Womens Fiction; 2), Normal, Ill.; Boulder, Colo.: Fiction Collective Two, →ISBN, page 83:

     It has been one week since my last confession, I accuse myself of: lies, disobeyances, fights.

Related terms

• obeyance