beholden
v.to feel that you must do something because of a duty, a debt, or a law. You use this when you feel you have no choice but to follow a rule or help someone.
v.to be under an obligation to do something or to be subject to the authority of another. Often used in the passive voice to describe a state of duty or legal necessity.
“The company is beholden to the new environmental laws.”
“The small startup is beholden to its investors, who control the majority of the voting shares.”
“While the artist claimed total creative freedom, his contract made him beholden to the studio's strict release schedule and marketing demands.”
“Who the speaker is, and to whom they are beholden in their caucus, matters greatly for the policy goals of the upcoming 120th Congress.”
“He said he was not taking any funds from corporate political action committees, while at the same time portraying Stevens as a Washington insider beholden to special interests .”
From Middle English biholden (“beholden, obligated”), past participle of biholden (“to behold, look at”, modern behold), though that verb does not mean "to bind, obligate".
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.