[ adj ] showing a cheerful willingness to do favors for others <adj.all> to close one's eyes like a complaisant husband whose wife has taken a loverthe obliging waiter was in no hurry for us to leave
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. 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.
obliging \o*bli"ging\ ([-o]*bl[imac]"j[i^]ng), a. Putting under obligation; disposed to oblige or do favors; hence, helpful; civil; kind.
Mons. Strozzi has many curiosities, and is very obliging to a stranger who desires the sight of them. --Addison.
Usage: One is kind who desires to see others happy; one is complaisant who endeavors to make them so in social intercourse by attentions calculated to please; one who is obliging performs some actual service, or has the disposition to do so. ※ -- {O*bli"ging*ly}. adv. -- {O*bli"ging*ness}, n.
THE TASK FORCE calls for abolition of the rule obliging Lloyd's brokers sell any majority interests in managing agents.
Opponents of the act worried about clauses obliging member states "to formulate and implement a European foreign policy," cooperate on security matters and "maintain the technological and industrial conditions necessary for security."
The press has reported in detail the party's amassing of vast property holdings through dubious leases from obliging city officials.
An addition to the penal code also takes effect tomorrow, obliging those who accept, look after, invest or transfer funds for others to know the identity of the funds' owner. Offenders can be punished by prison terms as long as one year.