Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Oblige \O*blige"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Obliged}; p. pr. & vb.
n. {Obliging}.] [OF. obligier, F. obliger, L. obligare; ob
(see {Ob-}) + ligare to bind. See {Ligament}, and cf.
{Obligate}.]
1. To attach, as by a bond. [Obs.]
He had obliged all the senators and magistrates
firmly to himself. --Bacon.
2. 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. --South.
Religion obliges men to the practice of those
virtues which conduce to the preservation of our
health. --Tillotson.
3. 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. --Dryden.
The gates before it are brass, and the whole much
obliged to Pope Urban VIII. --Evelyn.
I shall be more obliged to you than I can express.
--Mrs. E.
Montagu.
Source : WordNet®
obliged
adj : under a moral obligation to do something [syn: {duty-bound(p)},
{obliged(p)}]