oblige
/əˈblaɪd͡ʒ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
obsolete/əˈbliːd͡ʒ/
oblige verb: to constrain someone by force or by social, moral or legal means.
Verb
oblige (third-person singular simple present obliges, present participle obliging, simple past and past participle obliged)
- To constrain someone by force or by social, moral or legal means.
- Your carelessness obliges firmness on my part.
- I am obliged to report to the police station every week.
- Synonyms:
- necessitate
- To do (someone) a service or favour (hence, originally, creating an obligation).
- He obliged me by not parking his car in the drive.
- The singer obliged(us) with an encore.
- Synonyms:
- accommodate
- To cause somebody to feel indebted.
- I am much obliged to you for your recent help.
oblige meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
oblige in Tamil
- இணங்கு, கடப்பாடு
oblige in Urdu
- دل رکھنا, احسان کرنا, نوازنا
oblige in Bengali
- বাধ্য করা, অনুগ্রহ করা
oblige in Malayalam
- നിയമപ്രകാരം ചുമതലയുള്ളവരായിരിക്കുക, കടമപ്പെടുക, നിർബന്ധിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- oblige in Kannada
- ಬಲಾತ್ಕರಿಸು, ನಿರ್ಬಂಧಪಡಿಸು, ಒತ್ತಾಯಪಡಿಸು, ಕಟ್ಟಿಹಾಕು
Examples of oblige in a sentence
- They entered into an agreement and now they are obliged to perform.
- All employees are obliged to complete a tax return every year.
- The captain was obliged to allowance his crew.
Synonyms of oblige
Forms of oblige
| third-person singular present | obliges |
|---|---|
| present participle | obliging |
| past participle | obliged |
| past | obliged |
Origin of oblige
From Middle English obligen, from Old French obligier, obliger, from Latin obligō, obligāre, from ob- + ligō. Doublet of obligate, taken straight from Latin.
Words formed from oblige
Words that rhyme with oblige
Questions about oblige
- What does oblige mean?
- Oblige means to constrain someone by force or by social, moral or legal means.
- What is oblige in Tamil?
- Oblige in Tamil is இணங்கு, கடப்பாடு. See Oblige meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is oblige?
- Oblige is a verb.
- How do you pronounce oblige?
- Oblige is pronounced /əˈblaɪd͡ʒ/.
- What is the past tense of oblige?
- The past tense of oblige is obliged.
Words near oblige in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: oblige (page history and authors); oblige (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); oblige (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Oblige (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); oblige (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); oblige (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-oblige.wav.
Cite this entry: “oblige.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oblige. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.