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To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for. We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and lague with the aforesaid queen. Hakluyt. Many persons . . . had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity . . . prohibited by law. Strype.

The act of incurring or becoming subject to, as liabilities, obligation, debts, etc.; the process of becoming subject to; as, the contraction of a disease.

An obligation to perform certain services, as the repair of roads, for the lord or sovereign.

dog; snarling; captious; currish. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received. Johnson.

which one person is bound to pay to another, or to perform for his benefit; thing owed; obligation; liability. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt. Shak. When you run in debt, you give to another power over your liberty. Franklin.

To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce. [Obs.] I defy the surety and the bond. Chaucer. For thee I have defied my constant mistress. Beau. & Fl.

To of something weighing upon or impeding over one, as a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to clear. Discharged of business, void of strife. Dryden. In one man's fault discharge another man of his duty. L'Estrange.

Releasing from obligation. "Disobligatory power." Charles I.

To release from obligation. [Obs.] Absolving and disobliging from a more general command for some just and reasonable cause. Milton.

Release from obligation. [Obs.]

; specifically, in the Roman Catholic Church, exemption from some ecclesiastical law or obligation to God which a man has incurred of his own free will (oaths, vows, etc.). A dispensation was obtained to enable Dr. Barrow to marry. Ward.

the quantity; to twice the degree; as, doubly wise or good; to be doubly sensible of an obligation. Dryden.

Such as (a thing) ought to be; fulfilling obligation; proper; lawful; regular; appointed; sufficient; exact; as, due process of law; due service; in due time.

That which a person is bound by moral obligation to do, or refrain from doing; that which one ought to do; service morally obligatory. Forgetting his duty toward God, his sovereign lord, and his country. Hallam.

To put under pledge; to pledge; to place under obligations to do or forbear doing something, as by a pledge, oath, or promise; to bind by contract or promise. "I to thee engaged a prince's word." Shak.

That which engages; engrossing occupation; employment of the attention; obligation by pledge, promise, or contract; an enterprise embarked in; as, his engagements prevented his acceptance of any office. Religion, which is the chief engagement of our league. Milton.

That system of ethics which defines and enforces moral obligation by its relation to happiness or personal well-being.

To place in an equal state, as to obligation, or in a state in which nothing is due on either side; to balance, as accounts; to make quits. Shak.

pressive or unreasonably severe in making demands or requiring the exact fulfillment of obligations; harsh; severe. "A temper so exacting." T. Arnold -- Ex*act"ing*ly, adv. -- Ex*act"ing*ness, n.

To free from an impending obligation or duty; hence, to disengage; to dispense with; to release by favor; also, to remit by favor; not to exact; as, to excuse a forfeiture. I pray thee have me excused. xiv. 19.