obligation
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɒb.lɪˈɡeɪ.ʃən/
note: of Canada
ipa: /ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃən/
note: of Canada
ipa: /ˌɑ.bləˈɡeɪ.ʃən/
note: of the US
ipa: /ˌɒb.lɪˈɡeɪ.ʃən/
ipa: /ˌɔb.lɪˈɡæɪ.ʃən/
ipa: /ˌɒb.ləˈɡæɪ.ʃən/
ipa: /ˌɔ̟b.ləˈɡæɪ.ʃən/
rhymes: -eɪʃən
Forms: form: obligations
Etymology: From Middle English obligacioun, from Old French obligacion, from Latin obligatio, obligationem, from obligatum (past participle of obligare), from ob- (“to”) + ligare (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵ- (“to bind”).
Senses: glosses: The act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone.
examples: text: I feel I'm under obligation to attend my sister's wedding, even though we have a very frosty relationship.
text: The only responsibility and power of the Vice President under the Constitution is to faithfully count the electoral college votes as they have been cast.
The Constitution does not empower the Vice President to alter in any way the votes that have been cast, either by rejecting certain of them or otherwise.
How the Vice President discharges this constitutional obligation is not a question of his loyalty to the President any more than it would be a test of a President’s loyalty to his Vice President
whether the President assented to the impeachment and prosecution of his Vice President for the commission of high crimes while in office.
No President and no Vice President would—or should—consider either event as a test of political loyalty of one to the other.
And if either did, he would have to accept that political loyalty must yield to constitutional obligation.
Neither the President nor the Vice President has any higher loyalty than to the Constitution.
ref: 2021 January 5, J. Michael Luttig, Twitter, archived from the original on 05 Jan 2021; republished as Washington Post, 2021 January 5:
glosses: A social, legal, or moral requirement, duty, contract, or promise that compels someone to follow or avoid a particular course of action.
glosses: A course of action imposed by society, law, or conscience by which someone is bound or restricted.
examples: text: The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Diſcharge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extinguiſh the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and conſequently of all the reſt, they being all correi debendi, lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Diſcharged as to one, and ſtand as to all the reſt.
ref: December 19 1668, James Dalrymple, “Mr.Alexander Seaton contra Menzies”, in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion, Edinburgh, published 1683, page 575:
topics: law
glosses: A legal agreement stipulating a specified action or forbearance by a party to the agreement; the document containing such agreement.
examples: text: I am indebted to several friends for notes, observations, and correspondence on this subject, more especially to one, referred to as "Z.," and to another as "Q.," who have obtained a considerable number of reliable histories for me, and have also supplied many valuable notes [...]. Other obligations are mentioned in the text.
ref: 1927, Havelock Ellis, chapter 2, in Studies in the Psychology of Sex:
glosses: Reason for being obliged to, that is, grateful for, something.
Synonyms: sense: the act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone
word: commitment
sense: requirement, duty, contract or promise
word: duty
Coordinate terms: sense: antonym(s) of “requirement, duty, contract or promise”
word: right
Derived terms: collateralized debt obligation
collateralized fund obligation
collateralized loan obligation
counterobligation
debt obligation
disobligation
holy day of obligation
moral obligation
Sunday obligation
Related terms: obligate
obligated
obligational
obligato
obligatorily
oblige
obligee
obliger
obliging
obligingly
obligingness
obligor