All 24 Uses of
oblige
in
The Idiot
- Of course no one need tell a story if he prefers to be disobliging.†
Chpt 1.13disobliging = ignoring someone's wishes or causing inconvenience or discomfortstandard prefix: The prefix "dis-" in disobliging reverses the meaning of obliging. This is the same pattern as seen in words like disagree, disconnect, and disappear.
- "You don't care to oblige us?" asked Nastasia.†
Chpt 1.14 *oblige = grant a favor
- I told the poor people not to put much hope in me, because I was but a poor schoolboy myself—(I am not really, but I humiliated myself as much as possible in order to make them less hopeful)—but that I would go at once to the Vassili Ostroff and see my friend; and that as I knew for certain that his uncle adored him, and was absolutely devoted to him as the last hope and branch of the family, perhaps the old man might do something to oblige his nephew.†
Chpt 3.6
- He had been obliging—now he was as obstinate and silent as a mule.†
Chpt 4.11obliging = helpful or willing to be helpful
- He wore a large fur—or rather astrachan—overcoat, which had kept him warm all night, while his neighbour had been obliged to bear the full severity of a Russian November night entirely unprepared.†
Chpt 1.1
- A liveried servant opened the door, and the prince was obliged to enter into long explanations with this gentleman, who, from the first glance, looked at him and his bundle with grave suspicion.†
Chpt 1.2
- hardly at all, and now they say so much is changed in the place that even those who did know it well are obliged to relearn what they knew.†
Chpt 1.2
- He could not understand such a state of things, and was obliged to conclude that it was pride, the pride of an injured and imaginative woman, which had gone to such lengths that it preferred to sit and nurse its contempt and hatred in solitude rather than mount to heights of hitherto unattainable splendour.†
Chpt 1.4
- Schneider was obliged to promise that I should not meet them and talk to them; but we conversed from a distance by signs, and they used to write me sweet little notes.†
Chpt 1.6
- Besides these three rooms there was another small one at the end of the passage, close to the kitchen, which was allotted to General Ivolgin, the nominal master of the house, who slept on a wide sofa, and was obliged to pass into and out of his room through the kitchen, and up or down the back stairs.†
Chpt 1.8
- the latter had no money to pay for a cab, so they were obliged to walk.†
Chpt 1.12
- I have been obliged to put on this shawl—I feel so cold," replied Nastasia.†
Chpt 1.13
- "Yes, he is a rogue, but I was obliged to pay him," said the young man.†
Chpt 2.2
- He helped the young couple for a time, but he was soon obliged to give up, for the high-minded husband refused to accept anything from him.†
Chpt 2.8
- Breath failed him here, and he was obliged to stop.†
Chpt 2.10
- Muishkin was so absent, that from the very first he could not attend to a word the other was saying; and when the general suddenly stopped before him with some excited question, he was obliged to confess, ignominiously, that he did not know in the least what he had been talking about.†
Chpt 3.3
- The question is connected with the following anecdote of past times; for I am obliged to relate a story.†
Chpt 3.4 *
- He trembled so that the prince was obliged to support him, and would certainly have cried out, but that his voice seemed to have entirely left him for the moment.†
Chpt 3.5
- The prince was rather alarmed at all this, and was obliged to end by appointing the same hour of the following day for the interview desired.†
Chpt 4.3
- Much obliged to you for lending it to me.†
Chpt 4.4
- On the contrary, I have been so much interested, I'm really very much obliged to you.†
Chpt 4.4
- The latter was describing in eloquent words how, in consequence of recent legislation, he was obliged to sell a beautiful estate in the N. province, not because he wanted ready money—in fact, he was obliged to sell it at half its value.†
Chpt 4.7
- The latter was describing in eloquent words how, in consequence of recent legislation, he was obliged to sell a beautiful estate in the N. province, not because he wanted ready money—in fact, he was obliged to sell it at half its value.†
Chpt 4.7
- He satisfied their curiosity, in as few words as possible, with regard to the wedding, but their exclamations and sighs were so numerous and sincere that he was obliged to tell the whole story—in a short form, of course.†
Chpt 4.11
Definitions:
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(1)
(oblige as in: I am obliged by law.) require (obligate) to do something
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(2)
(oblige as in: I obliged her every request.) grant a favor to someone
-
(3)
(obliged as in: I'm much obliged for your kindness) grateful or indebted
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(4)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Much more rarely, in classic literature you may see oblige as a synonym for ask as when Jules Verne wrote "I obliged the Professor to move his lamp over the walls of the gallery," in Journey to the Center of the Earth.