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feudal system; a system by which the holding of estates in land is made dependent upon an obligation to render military service to the kind or feudal superior; feudal principles and usages.

Faithfulness; adherence to right; careful and exact observance of duty, or discharge of obligations. Especially:

n influence or producing an effect; especially, power to persuade, or convince, or impose obligation; pertinency; validity; special signification; as, the force of an appeal, an argument, a contract, or a term. He was, in the full force of the words, a good man. Macaulay.

To fail to keep an obligation. [Obs.] I will have the heart of him if he forfeit. Shak.

urden; -- followed by from, or, rarely, by of. Princes declaring themselves free from the obligations of their treaties. Bp. Burnet.

und; not fallacious; valid; in a commercial sense, to be depended on for the discharge of obligations incurred; having pecuniary ability; of unimpaired credit. My reasons are both good and weighty. Shak. My meaning in saying he is a good man is . . . that he is sufficient . . . I think I may take his bond. Shak.…

To be under necessity or obligation; to be compelled; followed by an infinitive. Science has, and will long have, to be a divider and a separatist. M. Arnold. The laws of philology have to be established by external comparison and induction. Earle.

responsibility, etc., as if by hiding in or behind a hedge; to skulk; to slink; to shirk obligations. I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of God on the left hand and hiding mine honor in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge and to lurch. Shak.

The doctrine that man's obligations are limited to, and dependent alone upon, man and the human relations.

An obligation by which property of a debtor was made over to his creditor in security of his debt.

Freedom or exemption from any charge, duty, obligation, office, tax, imposition, penalty, or service; a particular privilege; as, the immunities of the free cities of Germany; the immunities of the clergy.

e, it is called also a defective number; in the latter, an abundant number. -- Imperfect obligations (Law), obligations as of charity or gratitude, which cannot be enforced by law. -- Imperfect power (Math.), a number which can not be produced by taking any whole number or vulgar fraction, as a factor, the number of…

herlock. When a man employs a laborer to work for him, . . . the act of hiring implies an obligation and a promise that he shall pay him a reasonable reward for his services. Blackstone.

To lay as a charge, burden, tax, duty, obligation, command, penalty, etc.; to enjoin; to levy; to inflict; as, to impose a toll or tribute. What fates impose, that men must needs abide. Shak. Death is the penalty imposed. Milton. Thou on the deep imposest nobler laws. Waller.

That which is morally incumbent, or is imposed, as a rule, a duty, obligation, or responsibility. "The incumbencies of a family." Donne.

Lying, resting, or imposed, as a duty or obligation; obligatory; always with on or upon. All men, truly zealous, will perform those good works that are incumbent on all Christians. Sprat.

To bring into debt; to place under obligation; -- chiefly used in the participle indebted. Thy fortune hath indebted thee to none. Daniel.

Brought into debt; being under obligation; held to payment or requital; beholden. By owing, owes not, but still pays, at once Indebted and discharged. Milton.

Separate from; exclusive; irrespective. That obligation in general, under which we conceive ourselves bound to obey a law, independent of those resources which the law provides for its own enforcement. R. P. Ward.

ion laid down as true, to draw in another as true. Locke. Such opportunities always infer obligations. Atterbury.