O — Objectively to Oblivion (Part 4 of 6)

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.

The gates before it are brass, and the whole much obliged to Pope Urban VIII.

I shall be more obliged to you than I can express.

Obligee
(Ob"li*gee") n. [F. obligé, p. p. of obliger. See Oblige.] The person to whom another is bound, or the person to whom a bond is given. Blackstone.

Obligement
(O*blige"ment) n. Obligation. [R.]

I will not resist, therefore, whatever it is, either of divine or human obligement, that you lay upon me.

Obliger
(O*bli"ger) n. One who, or that which, obliges. Sir H. Wotton.

Obliging
(O*bli"ging), 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.

Syn. — Civil; complaisant; courteous; kind, — Obliging, Kind, Complaisant. 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.

Obligor
(Ob`li*gor") n. The person who binds himself, or gives his bond to another. Blackstone.

Obliquation
(Ob`li*qua"tion) n. [L. obliquatio, fr. obliquare to turn obliquely. See Oblique.]

1. The act of becoming oblique; a turning to one side; obliquity; as, the obliquation of the eyes. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

2. Deviation from moral rectitude. [R.]

Oblique
(Ob*lique") a. [F., fr. L. obliquus; ob (see Ob-) + liquis oblique; cf. licinus bent upward, Gr slanting.] [Written also oblike.]

1. Not erect or perpendicular; neither parallel to, nor at right angles from, the base; slanting; inclined.

It has a direction oblique to that of the former motion.

2. Not straightforward; indirect; obscure; hence, disingenuous; underhand; perverse; sinister.

The love we bear our friends . . .
Hath in it certain oblique ends.

This mode of oblique research, when a more direct one is denied, we find to be the only one in our power.

Then would be closed the restless, oblique eye.
That looks for evil, like a treacherous spy.