SG Heritage Dictionary

Allegiance [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. The tie or obligation of a subject to his Prince or government; the duty of fidelity to a king, government or state. Every native or citizen owes allegiance to the government under which he is born. This is called natural or implied allegiance which arises from the connection of a person with the society in which he is born, and his duty to be a faithful subject, independent of any express promise. Express allegiance is that obligation which proceeds from an express promise, or oath of fidelity.

2. Local or temporary allegiance is due from an alien to the government or state in which he resides.

Allegiance [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. The tie or obligation, implied or expressed, which a subject owes to his sovereign or government; the duty of fidelity to one's king, government, or state.

2. Devotion; loyalty; as, allegiance to science.

Allegiance Encyclopedia Britannica

ALLEGIANCE, either derived from the French allegeance or taken from the same Latin source, has been used to express that duty which a person possessing the privileges of a citizen owes to the state to which he belongs, and is technically applied in law to the duty which a British subject owes to the sovereign as representing the state. It has been divided by the English legal commentators into natural and local; the latter applying only to the deference which a foreigner must pay to the institutions of the country in which he happens to live; but it is in its wider sense that the word is important, as representing a condition attached to mankind of which it is very difficult in theory, and still more in practice, to adjust the true character and limits. For a state to decide what persons are bound to it by allegiance may be easy, but for a man to know where his allegiance lies when two or more states claim him—and hence for jurists to decide what is the reasonable extent to which any state ought to make such a claim—is often involved in difficulty. The English doctrine, which was also adopted in the United States, asserted that allegiance was indelible. Nemo potest exuere patriam (Forsyth's Cases and Opinions in Constitutional Law, pp. 257, sqq., 333, sq.) Accordingly, as the law stood before 1870, every person born within the British dominions, though he should be removed in infancy to another country where his family resides, owes an allegiance to the British crown which he could never resign or lose, except by Act of Parliament or by the recognition of the independence or the cession of the portion of British territory in which he resided. By the Naturalisation Act, 1870, 33 & 34 Vict. c. 14 (see Alien), it was made possible for British subjects to renounce their ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 1, p. 580
[624 words — estimated reading time: 4 minutes]

Obedience Roget’s Thesaurus §743

N. obedience, observance, compliance, submission, subjection, nonresistance, passiveness, resignation, allegiance, loyalty, fealty, homage, deference, devotion, constancy, fidelity, submissness, submissiveness, ductility, obsequiousness

V. be -obedient, obey, bear obedience to, submit, comply, answer the helm, come at one's call, do one's bidding, do what one is told, do suit and service, attend to orders, serve faithfully, follow the lead of, follow to the world's end, serve, play second fiddle

Adj. obedient, complying, compliant, loyal, faithful, devoted, at one's call, at one's command, at one's orders, at one's beck and call, under beck and call, under control, restrainable, resigned, passive, submissive, henpecked, pliant, unresisted

Adv. obediently, in compliance with, in obedience to

Phr. to hear is to obey, as you please, if you please, your wish is my command, as you wish, no sooner said than done

Duty Roget’s Thesaurus §926

N. duty, what ought to be done, moral obligation, accountableness, liability, onus, responsibility, bounden duty, imperative duty, call, call of duty, accountability, allegiance, fealty, tie engagement, part, function, calling, morality, morals, decalogue, case of conscience, conscientiousness, conscience, inward monitor, still small voice within, sense of duty, tender conscience, superego, the hell within, dueness, propriety, fitness, seemliness, amenability, decorum, τὸ πρέπον, the thing, the proper thing, the right thing to do, the proper thing to do, ethics, ethology, deontology, aretology, moral philosophy, ethical philosophy, casuistry, polity, observance, fulfillment, discharge, performance, acquittal, satisfaction, redemption, good behavior

V. be the duty of, be incumbent, on, be responsible, behoove, become, befit, beseem, belong to, pertain to, fall to one's lot, devolve on, lie upon, lie on one's head, lie at one's door, rest with, rest on the shoulders of, take upon oneself, be bound to, become bound to, be sponsor for, become sponsor for, incur a responsibility, be under an obligation, stand under an obligation, lie under an obligation, have to answer for, owe to it oneself, impose a duty, &c. n, enjoin, require, exact, bind, bind over, saddle with, prescribe, assign, call upon, look to, oblige, enter upon a duty, perform a duty, observe a duty, fulfill a duty, discharge a duty, adhere to a duty, acquit oneself of a duty, satisfy a duty, enter upon an obligation, perform an obligation, observe an obligation, fulfill an obligation, discharge an obligation, adhere to an obligation, acquit oneself of an obligation, satisfy an obligation, act one's part, redeem one's pledge, do justice to, be at one's post, do duty, do one's duty, be on one's good behavior, mind one's p's and q's

Adj. obligatory, binding, imperative, peremptory, stringent, behooving, incumbent on, chargeable on, under obligation, obliged by, bound by, tied by, saddled with, due to, beholden to, bound to, indebted to, tied down, compromised, in duty bound, amenable, liable, accountable, responsible, answerable, right, meet, moral, ethical, casuistical, conscientious, ethological

Adv. with a safe conscience, as in duty, bound, on one's own responsibility, at one's own risk, suo periculo, in foro conscientiae, quamdiu se bene gesserit

Phr. dura lex sed lex, dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, honos habet onus, leve fit quod bene fertur onus, loyaute m'oblige, "simple duty bath no place for fear", "stern daughter of the voice of god", "there is a higher law than the constitution"