obligation
Pluralobligations
- 1Something that binds a person to act or refrain from acting in a certain way, such as a duty imposed by society, law, or morality, or a contract or promise.
Like an invisible string tying you to a course of action you cannot simply walk away from.
A contract creates a binding obligation that courts can enforce.
Many people feel a moral obligation to vote in elections.
Similarduty, responsibility, requirement
Note
The sense with a fixed phrase: to be under obligation, or under an obligation, to do something. It takes to plus a verb, as in under obligation to attend. It often describes a duty that is felt rather than enforced, such as going to a sister's wedding despite a frosty relationship. Compare the 'gratitude' meaning, where the to points at a person instead.
- 2A course of action imposed by society, law, or conscience that binds or restricts a person.
Military service was once an obligation for every young man in the country.
She fulfilled her family obligations before pursuing her own dreams.
Similarduty, responsibility, commitment
- 3The act of binding oneself to another person through a social, legal, or moral tie.
Marriage involves a mutual obligation between two people.
He entered into the obligation freely, fully aware of its terms.
Similarcommitment
Note
Here the word stays close to its Latin picture. Obligare joins ob- 'to' and ligare 'to bind', so an obligation was first a tying of oneself to someone. The same root, Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ-, runs beneath every later sense of the word. In this use the noun names an act a person undertakes, which is why it pairs naturally with enter into.
- 4A legal agreement requiring a specified action or forbearance by a party, or the document that contains the agreement.
The court reviewed the obligation to determine each party's duties.
Both signatories received a copy of the obligation.
Similarcontract, agreement, bond
Note
Lawyers use the word both for the tie itself and for the paper that records it. One obligation could bind several parties together. James Dalrymple's Decisions of 1668 reports co-tutors 'lyable by one individual Obligation', so discharging one of them extinguished the whole debt for all of them. In civil-law usage the word names a duty to perform an act, or to refrain from one, in another party's favor.
- 5A reason for feeling grateful or indebted to someone for a kindness or favor received.
He repaid the obligation by helping them move house the following spring.
We are under a deep obligation to the strangers who sheltered us.
Similardebt
Note
Here the binding is a debt of thanks. Latin obligare meant "to bind to," and a kindness received ties the receiver to the giver until it is returned. The usual frame is "under an obligation to" someone, and "much obliged" draws on the same idea. A good test separates it from the sense of a duty: this debt arises from a favor, not from law or conscience.
Practice
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Origin
It comes through Middle English obligacioun and Old French obligacion from Latin obligatio, based on obligare, from ob- ('to') and ligare ('to bind'), which traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root *leyǵ- ('to bind').