oblige

oblige: oblige 1 constrain, coerce, compel, *force

Analogous words: *tie, bind

2 Oblige, accommodate, favor mean to do a service or courtesy.

To oblige a person is to make him indebted by doing something that is pleasing to him

{
Punch was always anxious to oblige everybody— Kipling
}

{
most hotels . . . will oblige if on a particular occasion you wish your meal served at a special time— Roetter
}

It is commonly used as a conventional acknowledgment of small courtesies or offices

{
there is an oversight . . . which I shall be much obliged to you to correct— Macaulay
}

Accommodate, when it is used of services, is often interchangeable with oblige. Sometimes, especially in the participial adjective, it implies gracious compliance

{
an accommodating host
}

or it may connote the intent to be of assistance

{
I was willing to accommodate you by undertaking to sell the horse— George Eliot
}

But accommodate often suggests a business transaction rather than an act of kindness, and an obligation to pay or repay. In such use it usually implies a loan of money or acceptance as a paying guest (see also CONTAIN)

{
the bank accommodated him with a short-term loan
}

{
the hotel could not accommodate the crowd
}

To favor, by contrast, is to render an attention or a service out of goodwill and commonly without im-posing an obligation on, or expecting a return from, the person favored

{
luck favored him in all his enterprises
}

{it was possible for one favored by the accidents of pigmentation to pass surreptitiously outside the narrow confines set by the prevailing race conceptions— Handlin)Sometimes there is a suggestion of gratuitousness or a patronizing character in the action (favor a friend with advice)

{
the stupidity with which he was favored by nature— Austen
}

Analogous words: gratify, *please: *benefit, profit, avail: *help, aid, assist: *support, uphold, back

Antonyms: disoblige

Contrasted words: *inconvenience, incommode, discommode, trouble

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Synonyms:

Compel, force, coerce, constrain, necessitate, bind / Serve, accommodate, please, favor, benefit, gratify, do a service for, do a favor to / Obligate, bind, bring or lay under obligation

Look at other dictionaries:

obligé — obligé, ée [ ɔbliʒe ] adj. • XIIIe; de obliger A ♦ (Personnes) 1 ♦ Tenu, lié par une obligation, assujetti par une nécessité. Dr. Une personne obligée envers un créancier. N. Le principal obligé : le débiteur principal (opposé à caution). Être,… … Encyclopédie Universelle
obligé — obligé, ée (o bli jé, jée) part. passé d obliger. 1° Lié par quelque chose dont on ne peut se dégager. • Elle sera obligée à son voeu ; et elle accomplira effectivement tout ce qu elle aura promis et juré, SACI Bible, Nombr. XXX, 45. • Je… … Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré
oblige — o‧blige [əˈblaɪdʒ] verb 1. [transitive] to make it necessary for someone to do something: oblige be obliged to do something • As a result of falling profits, we were obliged to close the factory. 2. [intransitive, transitive] to do something that … Financial and business terms
oblige — index accommodate, aid, assist, bear (support), bestow, bind (obligate), call ( … Law dictionary
oblige — [v1] require bind, coerce, command, compel, constrain, force, impel, make, necessitate, obligate, shotgun*; concepts 14,242,646 Ant. let off oblige [v2] do a favor or kindness accommodate, aid, assist, avail, bend over backward*, benefit, come… … New thesaurus
oblige — [ə blīj′, ōblīj′] vt. obliged, obliging [ME obligen < OFr obligier < L obligare, to bind, oblige < ob (see OB ) + ligare, to bind: see LIGATURE] 1. to compel by moral, legal, or physical force; constrain 2. to make indebted for a favor… … English World dictionary
Oblige — O*blige ([ o]*bl[imac]j ; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Obliged} ([ o]*bl[imac]jd ); p. pr. & vb. n. {Obliging} ([ o]*bl[imac] j[i^]ng).] [OF. obligier, F. obliger, L. obligare; ob (see {Ob }) + ligare to bind. See {Ligament}, and cf. {Obligate}.] 1 … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
oblige — (v.) c.1300, to bind by oath, from O.Fr. obligier (13c.), from L. obligare to bind, put under obligation, from ob to (see OB (Cf. ob )) + ligare to bind, from PIE root *leig to bind (see LIGAMENT (Cf. li … Etymology dictionary
oblige — ► VERB 1) compel legally or morally. 2) perform a service or favour for. 3) (be obliged) be indebted or grateful. ORIGIN Latin obligare, from ligare to bind … English terms dictionary
oblige — o|blige S3 [əˈblaıdʒ] v formal [Date: 1200 1300; : Old French; Origin: obliger, from Latin obligare, from ligare to tie ] 1.) [T usually passive] if you are obliged to do something, you have to do it because the situation, the law, a duty etc… … Dictionary of contemporary English

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