The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Obedience \O*be"di*ence\, n. [F. ob['e]dience, L. obedientia,
   oboedientia. See Obedient, and cf. Obeisance.]
   1. The act of obeying, or the state of being obedient;
      compliance with that which is required by authority;
      subjection to rightful restraint or control.
      [1913 Webster]

            Government must compel the obedience of individuals.
                                                  --Ames.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Words or actions denoting submission to authority;
      dutifulness. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Eccl.)
      (a) A following; a body of adherents; as, the Roman
          Catholic obedience, or the whole body of persons who
          submit to the authority of the pope.
      (b) A cell (or offshoot of a larger monastery) governed by
          a prior.
      (c) One of the three monastic vows. --Shipley.
      (d) The written precept of a superior in a religious order
          or congregation to a subject.
          [1913 Webster]

   Canonical obedience. See under Canonical.

   Passive obedience. See under Passive.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Priory \Pri"o*ry\, n.; pl. Priories. [Cf. LL. prioria. See
   Prior, n.]
   A religious house presided over by a prior or prioress; --
   sometimes an offshoot of, an subordinate to, an abbey, and
   called also cell, and obedience. See Cell, 2.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: Of such houses there were two sorts: one where the
         prior was chosen by the inmates, and governed as
         independently as an abbot in an abbey; the other where
         the priory was subordinate to an abbey, and the prior
         was placed or displaced at the will of the abbot.
         [1913 Webster]

   Alien priory, a small religious house dependent on a large
      monastery in some other country.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: See Cloister.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

obedience
    n 1: the act of obeying; dutiful or submissive behavior with
         respect to another person [syn: obedience, obeisance]
         [ant: disobedience, noncompliance]
    2: the trait of being willing to obey [ant: disobedience]
    3: behavior intended to please your parents; "their children
       were never very strong on obedience"; "he went to law school
       out of respect for his father's wishes" [syn: obedience,
       respect]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

68 Moby Thesaurus words for "obedience":
   Quakerism, acceptance, accommodation, accord, accordance,
   acquiescence, adaptability, adaptation, adaption, adjustment,
   agreeability, agreeableness, agreement, amenability, assent,
   complaisance, compliance, conformance,
   conformation other-direction, conformity, congruity, consent,
   consistency, conventionality, correspondence, deference, docility,
   dutifulness, flexibility, harmony, homage, humbleness, humility,
   keeping, kneeling, line, malleability, meekness, nonopposal,
   nonopposition, nonresistance, nonviolent resistance, obeisance,
   observance, orthodoxy, passive resistance, passiveness, passivity,
   pliancy, quietism, reconcilement, reconciliation, resignation,
   resignedness, respect, respectfulness, strictness, subjection,
   submission, submissiveness, submittal, subservience, supineness,
   tractability, traditionalism, uncomplainingness, uniformity,
   yielding