Obligation

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Obligation \Ob"li*ga"tion\, n. [F. obligation. L. obligatio. See
     {Oblige}.]
     1. The act of obligating.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. That which obligates or constrains; the binding power of a


        promise, contract, oath, or vow, or of law; that which
        constitutes legal or moral duty.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A tender conscience is a stronger obligation than a
              proson.                               --Fuller.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Any act by which a person becomes bound to do something to
        or for another, or to forbear something; external duties
        imposed by law, promise, or contract, by the relations of
        society, or by courtesy, kindness, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Every man has obligations which belong to his
              station. Duties extend beyond obligation, and direct
              the affections, desires, and intentions, as well as
              the actions.                          --Whewell.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. The state of being obligated or bound; the state of being
        indebted for an act of favor or kindness; -- often used
        with under to indicate being in that state; as, to place
        others under obligations to one.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. (Law) A bond with a condition annexed, and a penalty for
        nonfulfillment. In a larger sense, it is an acknowledgment
        of a duty to pay a certain sum or do a certain things.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Days of obligation}. See under {Day}.
  
     {under obligation}, {under an obligation}. in a state of
        obligation[4].
        [1913 Webster +PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  obligation
       n 1: the social force that binds you to your obligations and the
            courses of action demanded by that force; "we must
            instill a sense of duty in our children"; "every right
            implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an
            obligation; every possession, a duty"- John
            D.Rockefeller Jr [syn: {duty}, {responsibility}]
       2: the state of being obligated to do or pay something; "he is
          under an obligation to finish the job"
       3: a personal relation in which one is indebted for a service
          or favor
       4: a legal agreement specifying a payment or action and the
          penalty for failure to comply

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  183 Moby Thesaurus words for "obligation":
     accountability, accounts payable, accounts receivable,
     act of grace, act of kindness, affair, agreement, allegiance,
     amount due, appreciation, appreciativeness, aptitude, aptness,
     arrearage, assigned task, attempt, bad debts, benefaction, benefit,
     benevolence, benignity, bill, bills, blessing, bond, borrowing,
     boundary condition, bounden duty, burden, business, call,
     call of duty, catch, cause, chance, charge, charges, chits, clause,
     coaction, commitment, committal, compulsatory, compulsion,
     compulsiveness, compulsoriness, compulsory, condition, constraint,
     contingency, contract, courtesy, covenant, deal, debt, dedication,
     deference, demand, devoir, devotion, donnee, due, dues, duress,
     duties and responsibilities, duty, effort, enforcement, engagement,
     enterprise, escalator clause, escape clause, escape hatch, ethics,
     eventuality, favor, fealty, financial commitment, fine print,
     floating debt, forcing, funded debt, given, good deed,
     good offices, good turn, grace, gratefulness, gratitude, grounds,
     homage, imperative, imperious, indebtedness, indebtment,
     inevitability, irresistibility, joker, kicker, kind deed,
     kind offices, kindly act, kindness, labor of love, liability,
     liableness, likelihood, likeliness, limiting condition,
     line of duty, loyalty, mandatedness, mandatoriness, maturity,
     mercy, mission, mitzvah, must, national debt, necessariness,
     necessitation, necessitude, necessity, need, obligatoriness,
     obligatory, obligement, office, onus, operation, ought,
     outstanding debt, parameter, part, place, plan, pledge,
     possibility, preengagement, prerequisite, probability, program,
     project, promise, proneness, proposition, provision, provisions,
     proviso, public debt, recognizance, required, requirement,
     requisite, respect, responsibility, restraint, right,
     saving clause, score, self-imposed duty, sense of obligation,
     service, sine qua non, small print, specification, stipulation,
     string, task, terms, thankfulness, trust, turn, ultimatum,
     uncollectibles, understanding, undertaking, unfulfilled pledge,
     venture, verbal agreement, weakness, whereas, work
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  OBLIGATION. In its general and most extensive sense, obligation is 
  synonymous with duty. In a more technical meaning, it is a tie which binds 
  us to pay or to do something agreeably to the laws and customs of the 
  country in which the obligation is made. Just. Inst. 1. 3, t. 14. The term 
  obligation also signifies the instrument or writing by which the contract is 
  witnessed. And in another sense, an obligation still subsists, although the 
  civil obligation is said to be a bond containing a penalty, with a condition 
  annexed for the payment of money, performance of covenants or the like; it 
  differs from a bill, which is generally without a penalty or condition, 
  though it may be obligatory. Co. Litt. 172. It is also defined to be a deed 
  whereby a man binds himself under a penalty to do a thing. Com. Dig. 
  Obligation, A. The word obligation, in its most technical signification, ex 
  vi termini, imports a sealed instrument. 2 S. & R. 502; 6 Vern. 40; 1 
  Blackf. 241; Harp. R. 434; 2 Porter, 19; 1 Bald. 129. See 1 Bell's Com. b. 
  3, p. 1, c. 1, page 293; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t. 
       2. Obligations are divided into imperfect obligations, and perfect 
  obligations. 
       3. Imperfect obligations are those which are not binding on us as 
  between man and man, and for the non-performance of which we are accountable 
  to God only; such as charity or gratitude. In this sense an obligation is a 
  mere duty. Poth. Ob. art. Prel. n. 1. 
       4. A perfect obligation is one which gives a right to another to 
  require us to give him something or not to do something. These obligations 
  are either natural or moral, or they are civil. 
       5. A natural or moral obligation is one which cannot be enforced by 
  action, but which is binding on the party who makes it, in conscience and 
  according to natural justice. As for instance, when the action is barred by 
  the act of limitation, a natural obligation is extinguished. 5 Binn. 573. 
  Although natural obligations cannot be enforced by action, they have the 
  following effect: 1. No suit will lie to recover back what has been paid, or 
  given in compliance with a natural obligation. 1 T. R. 285; 1 Dall. 184, 2. 
  A natural obligation is a sufficient consideration for a new contract. 5 
  Binn. 33; 2 Binn. 591; Yelv. 41, a, n. 1; Cowp. 290; 2 Bl. Com. 445; 3 B. & 
  P. 249, n.; 2 East, 506; 3 Taunt. 311; 5 Taunt. 36; Yelv. 41, b. note; 3 
  Pick. 207 Chit. Contr. 10. 
       6. A civil obligation is one which has a binding operation in law, 
  vinculum juris, and which gives to the obligee the right of enforcing it in 
  a court of justice; in other words, it is an engagement binding on the 
  obligor. 12 Wheat. It:. 318, 337; 4 Wheat. R. 197. 
       7. Civil obligations are divided into express and implied, pure. and 
  conditional, primitive and secondary, principal and accessory, absolute and 
  alternative, determinate and indeterminate, divisible and indivisible, 
  single and penal, and joint and several. They are also purely personal, 
  purely real, and both real and mixed at the same time. 
       8. Express or conventional obligations are those by which the obligor 
  binds himself in express terms to perform his obligation. 
       9. An implied obligation is one which arises by operation of law; as, 
  for example, if I send you daily a loaf of bread, without any express 
  authority, and you make use of it in your family, the law raises an 
  obligation on your part to pay me the value of the bread. 
      10. A pure or simple obligation is one which is not suspended by any 
  condition, either because it has been contacted without condition, or, 
  having been contracted with one, it has been fulfilled. 
      11. A conditional obligation is one the execution of which is suspended 
  by a condition which has not been accomplished, and subject to which it has 
  been contracted. 
      12. A primitive obligation, which in one sense may also be called a 
  principal obligation, is one which is contracted with a design that it 
  should, itself, be the first fulfilled. 
      13. A secondary obligation is one which is contrasted, and is to be 
  performed, in case the primitive cannot be. For example, if I sell you my 
  house, I bind myself to give a title, but I find I cannot, as the title is 
  in another, then my secondary obligation is to pay you damages for my non-
  performance of my obligation. 
      14. A principal obligation is one which is the most important object of 
  the engagement of the contracting parties. 
      15. An accessory obligation is one which is dependent on the principal 
  obligation; for example, if I sell you a house and lot of ground, the 
  principal obligation on my part is to make you a title for it; the accessory 
  obligation is to deliver you all the title papers which I have relating to 
  it; to take care of the estate till it is delivered to you, and the like. 
      16. An absolute obligation is one which gives no alternative to the 
  obligor, but he is bound to fulfill it according to his engagement. 
      17. An alternative obligation is, where a person engages to do, or to 
  give several things in such a manner that the payment of one will acquit him 
  of all; as if A agrees to give B, upon a sufficient consideration, a horse, 
  or one hundred dollars. Poth. Obl. Pt. 2, c. 3, art. 6, No.. 245. 
      18. In order to constitute an alternative obligation, it is necessary 
  that two or more things should be promised disjunctively; where they are 
  promised conjunctively, there are as many obligations as the things which 
  are enumerated, but where they are in the alternative, though they are all 
  due, there is but one obligation, which may be discharged by the payment of 
  any of them. 
      19. The choice of performing one of the obligations belongs to the 
  obligor, unless it is expressly agreed that all belong to the creditor. 
  Dougl. 14; 1 Lord Raym. 279; 4 N. S. 167. If one of the acts is prevented by 
  the obligee, or the act of God, the obligor is discharged from both. See 2 
  Evans' Poth. Ob. 52 to 54; Vin. Ab. Condition, S b; and articles 
  Conjunctive; Disjunctive; Election. 
      20. A determinate obligation, is one which has for its object a certain 
  thing; as an obligation to  deliver a certain horse named Bucephalus. In 
  this case the obligation can only be discharged by delivering the identical 
  horse. 
      21. An indeterminate obligation is one where the obligor binds himself 
  to deliver one of a certain species; as, to deliver a horse, the delivery of 
  any horse will discharge the obligation. 
      22. A divisible obligation is one which being a unit may nevertheless be 
  lawfully divided with or without the consent of the parties. It is clear it 
  may be divided by consent, as those who made it, may modify or change it as 
  they please. But some obligations may be divided without the consent of the 
  obligor; as, where a tenant is bound to pay two hundred dollars a year rent 
  to his landlord, the obligation is entire, yet, if his landlord dies and 
  leaves two sons, each will be entitled to one hundred dollars; or if the 
  landlord sells one undivided half of the estate yielding the rent, the 
  purchaser will be entitled to receive one hundred dollars, and the seller 
  the other hundred. See Apportionment. 
      23. An indivisible obligation is one which is not susceptible of 
  division; as, for example, if I promise to pay you one hundred dollars, you 
  cannot assign one half of this to another, so as to give him a right of 
  action against me for his share. See Divisible. 
      24. A single obligation is one without any penalty; as, where I simply 
  promise to pay you one hundred dollars. This is called a single bill, when 
  it is under seal. 
      25. A penal obligation is one to which is attached a penal clause which 
  is to be enforced, if the principal obligation be not performed. In general 
  equity will relieve against a penalty, on the fulfillment of the principal 
  obligation. See Liquidated damages; Penalty. 
      26. A joint obligation is one by which several obligors promise to the 
  obligee to perform the obligation. When the obligation is only joint and the 
  obligors do not promise separately to fulfill their engagement they must be 
  all sued, if living, to compel the performance; or, if any be dead, the 
  survivors must all be sued. See Parties to actions. 
      27. A several obligation is one by which one individual, or if there be 
  more, several individuals bind themselves separately to perform the 
  engagement. In this case each obligor may be sued separately, and if one or 
  more be dead, their respective executors may be sued. See Parties to 
  actions. 
      28. The obligation is, purely personal when the obligor binds himself to 
  do a thing; as if I give my note for one thousand dollars, in that case my 
  person only is bound, for my property is liable for the debt only while it 
  belongs to me, and, if I lawfully transfer it to a third person, it is 
  discharged. 
      29. The obligation is personal in another sense, as when the obligor 
  binds himself to do a thing, and he provides his heirs and executors shall 
  not be bound; as, for example, when he promises to pay a certain sum yearly 
  during his life, and the payment is to cease at his death. 
      30. The obligation is real when real estate, and not the person, is 
  liable to the obligee for the performance. A familiar example will explain 
  this: when an estate owes an easement, as a right of way, it is the thing 
  and not the owner who owes the easement. Another instance occurs when a 
  person buys an estate which has been mortgaged, subject to the mortgage, he 
  is not liable for the debt, though his estate is. In these cases the owner 
  has an interest only because he is seised of the servient estate, or the 
  mortgaged premises, and he may discharge himself by abandoning or parting 
  with the property. 
      31. The obligation is both personal and real when the obligor has bound 
  himself, and pledged his estate for the fulfillment of his obligation.