obliging
Americanadjective
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willing or eager to do favors, offer one's services, etc.; accommodating.
The clerk was most obliging.
adjective
Usage
What does obliging mean? Obliging is used to describe someone who is willing or eager to politely do things for others, such as performing favors or services for them, as in a most obliging host. It can also describe such a person’s actions, as in We appreciate your obliging service. A close synonym is accommodating. The word comes from the verb oblige, which commonly means to politely do something for someone, as in He’s the kind of person who’s happy to oblige no matter what the request is. Oblige also commonly means to require, compel, or constrain, but obliging is not typically used as an adjective in this sense. Example: You’ve been so obliging—we can’t thank you enough for all your hospitality.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of obliging
Explanation
If you're obliging, you're easy to get along with and eager to help. An obliging neighbor, for example, might volunteer to shovel your sidewalk after it snows. The adjective obliging is perfect for describing someone who is especially considerate and helpful. An obliging co-worker will always come to your aid or chip in for donuts, and an obliging roommate will turn off her light when you're ready to go to sleep. The word has been around since the mid-1600s, and it comes from the verb oblige, with its Latin root obligare, which means both "to bind up or bandage" and "to put under obligation or commitment."
Vocabulary lists containing obliging
Little Women
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The Great Gilly Hopkins
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Turtle Boy
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Promoters are keen to expand and capture new market share, often reflected in artist contracts obliging the latter to tour in certain geographies, Europe being one of them,” the Bernstein analysts said.
From MarketWatch • May 6, 2026
When the U.S. abandoned its bases in Greenland, it left the cleanup to Denmark despite the treaty obliging Washington to do it.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026
It turns out clafoutis is a natural shape-shifter — easy to make, nearly impossible to ruin and endlessly obliging.
From Salon • Sep. 27, 2025
“Friendship” surrounds Robinson with normalcy: filler talk, obliging laughter and the kind of handsome lighting you’d see in a home-insurance commercial.
From Los Angeles Times • May 9, 2025
But I wanted to leave things in order and not just trust that obliging and indifferent sea to sweep my refuse away.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
