obligatory

Definition

Imposing obligation, legally, morally, or otherwise; binding; mandatory.

Etymology

From Middle English obligatorie, from Latin obligatōrius.

Example Sentences

• "an obligatory promise"
• "[…] if he speak the words of an oath in a strange language, thinking they signify something else, or if he spake in his sleep, or deliration, or distraction, it is no oath, and so not obligatory."
• "[I]t was something that every schoolboy of my generation almost `had' to do, as obligatory a proof of impending manliness as scrumping apples or pulling girls' pigtails."

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