debt
Forms
- Plural
- debts
Definitions
1.An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
- This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.
- Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt / Of this proud king, who studies day and night / To answer all the debt he owes to you / Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
2.The state or condition of owing something to another.
- We owe them a debt of gratitude for taking care of our pets.
- I am in your debt.
3.Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction.
- I don't own any stocks or bonds. All my money is tied up in debt.
- Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.
4.An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due
- How much does my debt amount to?
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1312
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English dette, dett, borrowed from Old French dete (French dette), from Medieval Latin dēbita, from Latin dēbitum (“what is owed, a debt, a duty”), neuter of dēbitus, perfect passive participle of dēbeō (“to owe”), contraction of *dehibeō (“I have from”), from de (“from”) + habeō (“to have”). Doublet of debit. Displaced native Old English eofot.