debt

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

[edit] English

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Debt

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[edit] Etymology

From Old French dete (French: dette) < Mediaeval Latin debita < Latin debitum (“‘what is owed, a debt, a duty’”), neut. pp. of debere (“‘to owe’”), contr. of *dehibere (“‘literally to have from’”) < de- (“‘from’”) + habere.

The unpronounced "b" in the modern English spelling, is a Latinisation from the Latin etmyon debitum.

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɛt/, SAMPA: /dEt/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

  Rhymes: -ɛt

[edit] Noun

debt (plural debts)

1. An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
   • 1589, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, act 1, sc. 3,

     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.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, ch. 14,

     This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.

2. The state or condition of owing something to another.

   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.
   • 1919, Upton Sinclair, Jimmie Higgins, ch. 15,

     Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Related terms

• debit
• debitor
• debtor
• indebted

[edit] Translations

[edit] External links

• debt in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• debt in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911