Search Result for "oblige": 
Wordnet 3.0

VERB (3)

1. force somebody to do something;
- Example: "We compel all students to fill out this form"
[syn: compel, oblige, obligate]

2. bind by an obligation; cause to be indebted;
- Example: "He's held by a contract"
- Example: "I'll hold you by your promise"
[syn: oblige, bind, hold, obligate]

3. provide a service or favor for someone;
- Example: "We had to oblige him"
[syn: oblige, accommodate]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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.] [1913 Webster] He had obliged all the senators and magistrates firmly to himself. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] 2. To constrain by physical, moral, or legal force; to put under obligation to do or forbear something. [1913 Webster] The obliging power of the law is neither founded in, nor to be measured by, the rewards and punishments annexed to it. --South. [1913 Webster] Religion obliges men to the practice of those virtues which conduce to the preservation of our health. --Tillotson. [1913 Webster] 3. To bind by some favor rendered; to place under a debt; hence, to do a favor to; to please; to gratify; to accommodate. [1913 Webster] Thus man, by his own strength, to heaven would soar, And would not be obliged to God for more. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] The gates before it are brass, and the whole much obliged to Pope Urban VIII. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster] I shall be more obliged to you than I can express. --Mrs. E. Montagu. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

oblige v 1: force somebody to do something; "We compel all students to fill out this form" [syn: compel, oblige, obligate] 2: bind by an obligation; cause to be indebted; "He's held by a contract"; "I'll hold you by your promise" [syn: oblige, bind, hold, obligate] 3: provide a service or favor for someone; "We had to oblige him" [syn: oblige, accommodate] [ant: disoblige]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

55 Moby Thesaurus words for "oblige": accommodate, aid, assist, avail, benefit, bind, brook no denial, call for, cater to, coddle, coerce, commit, compel, concuss, constrain, contribute, convenience, cosset, demand, dictate, do a favor, do a service, do right by, exact, favor, force, give way to, gratify, help, humor, impose, indulge, insist upon, leave no option, make, make imperative, make incumbent, mollycoddle, necessitate, obligate, pamper, please, pledge, profit, require, saddle with, satisfy, serve, shotgun, show kindness to, spoil, take no denial, tie, treat well, yield to