Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Ready to do favors for others; accommodating.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having a disposition to oblige or confer favors; ready to do a good turn or to be of service: as, an obliging neighbor; hence, characteristic of one who is ready to do a favor; accommodating; kind; complaisant: as, an obliging disposition.
- Synonyms Friendly. See
polite .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Putting under obligation; disposed to oblige or do favors; hence, helpful; civil; kind.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Happy andready to dofavours for others. - verb Present participle of
oblige .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective showing a cheerful willingness to do favors for others
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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I answered this worthy man, and told him my sister's reserve, as to her husband's treatment of her: he praised her prudence, and added, "your father had two motives in obliging her to marry the Count; he was disappointed in both, for he was no stranger to her situation before he died."
The Castle of Wolfenbach Eliza 1793
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He was what they called "obliging" -- a man who instinctively did the thing which he saw would help another, no matter how trivial or homely it was.
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Love such as his, in a man like himself, must with perseverance secure a return, and at no great distance; and he had so much delight in the idea of obliging her to love him in a very short time, that her not loving him now was scarcely regretted.
Mansfield Park 2004
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"Oh, all right, I'll shoot him then!" called obliging Stubby, whistling for the dog -- while all morning long the woman grieved over having sent a helpless little dog away with that perfectly
Lifted Masks; stories Susan Glaspell 1915
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Yet it is ungrateful to be grave, when practically you are good and just about the letters, and generous too sometimes, and I could not bear the idea of obliging you to write to me, even once ... when ....
The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Browning, Robert, 1812-1889 1898
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Yet it is ungrateful to be grave, when practically you are good and just about the letters, and generous too sometimes, and I could not bear the idea of obliging you to write to me, even once ... when ....
The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 Robert Browning 1850
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Love such as his, in a man like himself, must with perseverance secure a return, and at no great distance; and he had so much delight in the idea of obliging her to love him in a very short time, that her not loving him now was scarcely regretted.
Mansfield Park 1814
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Love such as his, in a man like himself, must with perseverance secure a return, and at no great distance; and he had so much delight in the idea of obliging her to love him in a very short time, that her not loving him now was scarcely regretted.
Mansfield Park Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 1814
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Love such as his, in a man like himself, must with perseverance secure a return, and at no great distance; and he had so much delight in the idea of obliging her to love him in a very short time, that her not loving him now was scarcely regretted.
Mansfield Park 1814
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Love such as his, in a man like himself, must with perseverance secure a return, and at no great distance; and he had so much delight in the idea of obliging her to love him in a very short time, that her not loving him now was scarcely regretted.
Mansfield Park Jane Austen 1796
BrainyBabe commented on the word obliging
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obliging building society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008