How to Use obligate in a Sentence

obligate

1 of 2 verb
Definition of obligatenext
Synonyms for obligatenext
  • The contract obligates the firm to complete the work in six weeks.
  • Governments must obligate that money for projects by the end of next year and spend it by the close of 2026.
    — David A. Lieb and Kavish Harjai, Chicago Tribune, 19 Aug. 2023
  • No one is obligated to agree with Kristol about the war in Ukraine.
    — Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Being a buy-and-hold investor doesn’t obligate you to use a death grip.
    — Jason Zweig, WSJ, 8 July 2022
  • The move means if Putin sets foot in any of the court's 123 member states, that state is obligated to arrest him.
    — Christine Fernando, USA TODAY, 18 Mar. 2023
  • If a bank fails, the FDIC isn’t obligated to make good on its loan agreements, for instance.
    — Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Lawmakers have until the end of 2024 to obligate the Rescue Plan funds.
    — Mike Cason | McAson@al.com, al, 2 Oct. 2021
  • When does the state of knowledge obligate us to change contact sports further—or alter our views of them?
    — Ingfei Chen, The New Yorker, 11 Feb. 2023
  • The person receiving the gift is obligated to dance with the gift giver, Akpik-Lemen said.
    — Alena Naiden, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Feb. 2023
  • Even if Schumer called on him to resign, Menendez would not be obligated to obey.
    — Grace Segers, The New Republic, 26 Sep. 2023
  • The vast majority of the band has day jobs that keep them obligated to stay home a little bit, more than some of the other bands.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 23 Apr. 2024
  • Nonetheless, we are obligated to try to understand, and books are the best place to start.
    — Boris Kachka, Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2023
  • As a driver, Nichols was obligated to run errands and to get a job to help support her small household.
    — Barbara Spindel, The Christian Science Monitor, 11 Apr. 2024
  • When on the road, we were obligated to call the office and provide the hotel’s phone number in case someone needed to reach us.
    — Helene Elliott, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2024
  • You are not obligated to go broke paying for your friends’ overindulgence.
    — Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 8 July 2023
  • The farmers, in exchange, are obligated to sell their crop to the Chinese company or its agents.
    — Farai Mutsaka, Quartz, 13 Mar. 2024
  • The party with the largest share of seats is then obligated to obtain support from smaller parties to pass a budget.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 5 Oct. 2023
  • The facts of Cole’s case obligate the state to spare his life, his attorneys in recent months told parole board members, though the arguments failed.
    — Dakin Andone, CNN, 20 Oct. 2022
  • The Senate has already passed a bill obligating schools to tell parents of all books their children check out of campus libraries.
    — Aarón Torres, Dallas News, 20 Apr. 2023
  • If and when a public figure decides to open up about their body (which they are not obligated to!) is completely up to them.
    — Sam Reed, Glamour, 25 July 2023
  • You are not obligated to become friends with the woman, just because your genders match up.
    — Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 17 June 2023
  • As hostess, am I obligated to track down the owners and notify them of their oversight?
    — Jacobina Martin, Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2023
  • For Phoenix, the decision has meant scrambling to prop up shelter beds, but if it is overturned, the city may not be legally obligated to do so.
    — Taylor Seely, The Arizona Republic, 29 Feb. 2024
  • Are they obligated to acknowledge these notes in any way?
    — Jacobina Martin, Washington Post, 17 Apr. 2024
  • According to him, the only Roman Catholics who are obligated to fast are people aged 18 to 59.
    — Julia Gomez, USA TODAY, 13 Feb. 2024
  • Reunion shows aren’t obligated to be good; plenty of bands have made that obvious by now.
    — Pitchfork, 20 Dec. 2023
  • The union accused the coffee chain giant of refusing to bargain in good faith as it is legally obligated to do.
    — Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun, 17 Apr. 2023
  • But that doesn’t mean that the news media is obligated to accept such assertions at face value.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 7 Nov. 2023
  • And oh, holy wow, your support obligates them to produce grandchildren for you not at all, not a bit, not even the fading memory of a bit written in sand.
    — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 20 Mar. 2023
  • The action does not obligate the agency to participate.
    — Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 May 2024
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obligate

2 of 2 adjective
  • That may not work well with the obligate planner but this is where the rest of us can shine.
    — Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 5 Aug. 2022
  • And because cats are obligate carnivores, meat is the name of the game.
    — Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping, 2 June 2020
  • Indeed, the variety Dr Abe chose to work with, known as the Notojima strain, is, like the bdelloids, an obligate parthenogen.
    — The Economist, 23 Jan. 2021
  • Morels exhibit a lavish, almost obligate response to fire, flourishing most in the springtime after a fire has cleared an area and augmented the soil with carbon.
    — Heather Arndt Anderson, Sunset Magazine, 13 Feb. 2020
  • Females of these species, which include some wasps, crustaceans and lizards, reproduce only through parthenogenesis and are called obligate parthenogens.
    — Mercedes Burns, CNN, 27 Dec. 2021
  • As obligate scavengers, condors use their powerful bills to tear into dead animals with tough skin, like sea lions, that smaller scavengers can’t.
    — Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 July 2022
  • It’s known that dogs aren’t obligate carnivores, despite popular belief, but their health still benefits from a diet rich in high-quality proteins from meat.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2022
  • About 50 kinds of lizards reproduce exclusively by asexual means (obligate parthenogenesis), plus the one species of snake mentioned above.
    — Quanta Magazine, 18 June 2020
  • Biologists have observed, over long periods of time, that species that are obligate parthenogens frequently die out from disease, parasitism or changes in habitat.
    — Mercedes Burns, CNN, 27 Dec. 2021
  • The Andaman Islanders were obligate hunter-gatherers, and have a clear difficultly adapting to agricultural life.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 30 Mar. 2011
  • Cats are obligate carnivores, depending on meat for their nutrition.
    — Jonathan Keane, Forbes, 8 Aug. 2022
  • Cats are obligate carnivores, so quality cat food should consist primarily of meat.
    — Lauren Corona, chicagotribune.com, 26 Feb. 2021
  • For example, religious marriages in much of medieval Europe were obligate for noble families, but may not have been for peasants, who made recourse to common law relationships.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 7 Jan. 2012
  • At last European is a good testing ground for these sorts of explorations, as obviously obligate nutritional differences aren't much of an issue anymore on that continent.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 15 May 2011
  • Contrary to popular belief, dogs aren’t obligate carnivores.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2022
  • Despite their different relatedness in different tribes of the Culicidae and dissimilar life histories, the obligate predators Tx.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Some animals are obligate carnivores while others are facultative carnivores.
    — Dallas News, 22 Dec. 2022
  • That may not work well with the obligate planner but this is where the rest of us can shine.
    — Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 5 Aug. 2022
  • And because cats are obligate carnivores, meat is the name of the game.
    — Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping, 2 June 2020
  • Indeed, the variety Dr Abe chose to work with, known as the Notojima strain, is, like the bdelloids, an obligate parthenogen.
    — The Economist, 23 Jan. 2021
  • Morels exhibit a lavish, almost obligate response to fire, flourishing most in the springtime after a fire has cleared an area and augmented the soil with carbon.
    — Heather Arndt Anderson, Sunset Magazine, 13 Feb. 2020
  • Females of these species, which include some wasps, crustaceans and lizards, reproduce only through parthenogenesis and are called obligate parthenogens.
    — Mercedes Burns, CNN, 27 Dec. 2021
  • As obligate scavengers, condors use their powerful bills to tear into dead animals with tough skin, like sea lions, that smaller scavengers can’t.
    — Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 July 2022
  • It’s known that dogs aren’t obligate carnivores, despite popular belief, but their health still benefits from a diet rich in high-quality proteins from meat.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2022
  • About 50 kinds of lizards reproduce exclusively by asexual means (obligate parthenogenesis), plus the one species of snake mentioned above.
    — Quanta Magazine, 18 June 2020
  • Biologists have observed, over long periods of time, that species that are obligate parthenogens frequently die out from disease, parasitism or changes in habitat.
    — Mercedes Burns, CNN, 27 Dec. 2021
  • The Andaman Islanders were obligate hunter-gatherers, and have a clear difficultly adapting to agricultural life.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 30 Mar. 2011
  • Cats are obligate carnivores, depending on meat for their nutrition.
    — Jonathan Keane, Forbes, 8 Aug. 2022
  • Cats are obligate carnivores, so quality cat food should consist primarily of meat.
    — Lauren Corona, chicagotribune.com, 26 Feb. 2021
  • For example, religious marriages in much of medieval Europe were obligate for noble families, but may not have been for peasants, who made recourse to common law relationships.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 7 Jan. 2012

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'obligate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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