Oblige

WORD OF THE DAY

oblige / verb / uh-BLYJE

Definition
1: to constrain by physical, moral, or legal force or by the exigencies of circumstance
2a: to put in one's debt by a favor or service
2b: to do a favor for
3: to do something as or as if as a favor

Examples
"Fiduciaries are obliged to do what's in your best interest, even if it means they make less money."
— Paul Katzeff, Investor's Business Daily, 13 May 2022

Many Chinese communities think yellow skin is an indicator of a chicken that lived well, and hence eats well, and some kitchens will tint the poaching water with a tiny bit of turmeric to oblige their customers.
— Tse Wei Lim, BostonGlobe.com, 7 June 2022

Did You Know?
Oblige shares some similarities with its close relative obligate, but there are also differences.
Oblige derives via Middle English and the Anglo-French obliger from Latin obligare ("to bind to"), a combination of ob- ("to or toward") and ligare ("to bind"), whereas obligate descends directly from obligatus, the Latin past participle of obligare.
Both oblige and obligate are frequently used in their past participle forms to express a kind of legal or moral constraint.
Obligated once meant "indebted for a service or favor," but today it typically means "required to do something because the law requires it or because it is the right thing to do."
Obliged is now the preferred term for the sense that Southern author Flannery O'Connor used in a 1952 letter: "I would be much obliged if you would send me six copies."