2 uses
(click/touch triangles for details)
Definition
a duty
- With the problem of the universe revolving in me, how could I—being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering altitude—how could I but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whale-ships' standing orders, "Keep your weather eye open, and sing out every time."Chapters 34-36 — The Cabin-Table; The Mast-Head; The Qarter-Deck—Ahab and all (56% in)
- As Queequeg's Ramadan, or Fasting and Humiliation, was to continue all day, I did not choose to disturb him till towards night-fall; for I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody's religious obligations, never mind how comical, and could not find it in my heart to undervalue even a congregation of ants worshipping a toad-stool; or those other creatures in certain parts of our earth, who with a degree of footmanism quite unprecedented in other planets, bow down before the torso...Chapters 16-18 — The Ship; The Ramadan; His Mark (60% in)
There are no more uses of "obligation" in Moby Dick.
Typical Usage
(best examples)