OBLIGE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Oblige

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/əblˈaɪdʒ/ Listen

verb

Oblige v. t. (past & past part. obliged; pres. part. obliging)

To attach, as by a bond. (Obs.) "He had obliged all the senators and magistrates firmly to himself."

To constrain by physical, moral, or legal force; to put under obligation to do or forbear something. "The obliging power of the law is neither founded in, nor to be measured by, the rewards and punishments annexed to it." "Religion obliges men to the practice of those virtues which conduce to the preservation of our health."

To bind by some favor rendered; to place under a debt; hence, to do a favor to; to please; to gratify; to accommodate. "Thus man, by his own strength, to heaven would soar, And would not be obliged to God for more." "The gates before it are brass, and the whole much obliged to Pope Urban VIII." "I shall be more obliged to you than I can express."

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Etymology of 'Oblige'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Oblige" Quotes from Famous Books

... I said, "but cards for social purposes should not be bent or frayed at the edge, and can hardly be too clean. Oblige me ...

— Eliza • Barry Pain

... shepherding this obstinate little waif? It has been running hither and thither for nearly half an hour, taking every direction but the right one. If you will either walk on and lower the bars for me or drive this lamb while I go forward, you will greatly oblige me. Pardon me,—you look distressed. Something ...

— Vashti - or, Until Death Us Do Part • Augusta J. Evans Wilson

... creatures. Yet I should confer the patents of nobility, if it were my prerogative; for some would succeed in living up to them. Vanity would accomplish that much. Vanity is the secret of noblesse oblige; not radical virtue—since we are beginning to ...

— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... "You will oblige me, mother, by not trying it again too soon," was George's ironical reply as he put ...

— Sir George Tressady, Vol. I • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... few laws, and such is their constitution that they need not many. They very much condemn other nations, whose laws, together with the commentaries on them, swell up to so many volumes; for they think it an unreasonable thing to oblige men to obey a body of laws that are both of such a bulk, and so dark as not to be read and understood by every ...

— Ideal Commonwealths • Various

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