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Glite Dictionary
📜 To require 💰 To set aside 🦠 Needing one way
to obligate

to obligate

7 7.3
Set aside money or resources for a particular use
  • verb
  • /ˈɑːblɪɡeɪt/
  • Formal
translation icon : comprometer fondos
  • The attempt to obligate public dollars for this project without a vote of the citizenry is illegal.
  • obligated to provide

Examples

  • As a further condition, the agreement obligated the civilian government to unconditionally prosecute counterinsurgency operations against unrepentant guerrilla insurgents.

    Academic text (2001)

  • To advance these political objectives, Congress obligated $96.57 billion between 2002 and 2013 for Afghanistan aid.

    Academic text (2017)

  • The law required that ARRA funds had to be obligated by September 2010.

    Academic text (2011)

  • At this point, two years into the five-year project, USAID had obligated $23 million of the $38 million award.

    Academic text (2017)

  • In fiscal year 2014 alone, the DoD obligated approximately $55.5 billion to small business prime contractors at over 51,000 locations.

    Academic text (2017)

  • The law required that ARRA funds had to be obligated by September 2010.

  • Agencies would be obligated to solicit, consider, and respond to public input.

Synonyms

to appropriate
vsto obligate
  • Formal
26 6.9

Give money officially for a particular use

requires allocation to meet a legal or formal requirement rather than optional assignment

Antonyms

to decommit
1 8.4

To officially take back a promise or plan

Compounds

obligate anaerobe
  • Specialized
8.4

A living thing like some bacteria that cannot live where there is oxygen

How Binding

to encumber
9 7.6
to obligate
  • Formal
7 7.3
to commit
706 3.4
to earmark
29 6.3
to allocate
92 4.5

Surface Forms

obligate infinitive
obligated past
obligated past participle
obligating present participle
obligates third person singular

Morphology

obligate = oblige (semi-transparent) = oblig + ate

The fiscal sense ('commit or earmark funds') is conceptually related to 'bind' or 'oblige', but it is a specialized administrative usage not immediately inferable by all learners.

Etymology

Obligate in the sense of using or setting aside money comes from Latin ligare 'to bind'. It means to 'bind' funds to a specific purpose, so that the money is reserved and cannot be used for other things.