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Obligation vs Intention - What's the difference?

obligation | intention |

As nouns the difference between obligation and intention

is that obligation is the act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone while intention is a course of action that a person intends to follow.

obligation

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone.
  • A social, legal, or moral requirement, duty, contract, or promise that compels someone to follow or avoid a particular course of action.
  • A course of action imposed by society, law, or conscience by which someone is bound or restricted.
  • (legal) A legal agreement stipulating a specified payment or action; the document containing such agreement.
  • X shall be entitled to subcontract its obligation to provide the Support Services. <>
  • * 1668 December 19, , “Mr.'' Alexander Seaton ''contra'' Menzies” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575
  • The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Di?charge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extingui?h the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and con?equently of all the re?t, they being all correi debendi , lyable by one individual Obligation , which cannot be Di?charged as to one, and ?tand as to all the re?t.

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often used with "obligation": moral, legal, social, contractual, political, mutual, military, perpetual, etc.

    Synonyms

    * duty

    Antonyms

    * right

    intention

    Alternative forms

    * entention (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A course of action that a person intends to follow.
  • :
  • *(Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784) (but see Apocryhpha )
  • *:Hell is paved with good intentions .
  • *
  • *:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=3 , passage=It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me.
  • The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.
  • :
  • (lb) Tension; straining, stretching.
  • *, I.iii.3:
  • *:cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].
  • A stretching or bending of the mind toward of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea.
  • (lb) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
  • *1732 , (John Arbuthnot), An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments … , Prop. II, p.159:
  • *:In a Word, the most part of chronical Distempers proceed from Laxity of Fibres; in which Case the principal Intention is to restore the Tone of the solid Parts;.
  • (lb) Any mental apprehension of an object.
  • (lb) The process of the healing of a wound.
  • *2007 , Carie Ann Braun, ?Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health , p.49:
  • *:When healing occurs by primary intention , the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Derived terms

    * intentional * the road to hell is paved with good intentions * well-intentioned