ought
(obsolete) simple past tense of owe
ought
(auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation.
(auxiliary) Indicating advisability or prudence.
(auxiliary) Indicating desirability.
(auxiliary) Indicating likelihood or probability.
• Ought is an auxiliary verb; it takes a following verb as its complement. This following verb may appear either as a full infinitive (such as “to go”) or a bare infinitive (such as simple “go”), depending on region and speaker; the same range of meanings is possible in either case. Additionally, it's possible for ought not to take any complement, in which case a verb complement is implied, as in, “You really ought to [do so].”
• The negative of ought is either ought not (to) or oughtn't (to) (yet oughtn't've: oughtn't *(to) have)
• should (In all senses)
ought
Alternative spelling of aught; anything
ought (not comparable)
Alternative spelling of aught; at all, to any degree.
ought (plural oughts)
A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.
ought (plural oughts)
Alternative spelling of aught; cipher, zero, nought.
• Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
• tough
Source: Wiktionary
Ought, n. & adv.
Definition: See Aught.
Ought, imp., p. p., or auxiliary. Etym: [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
1. Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Obs.] This due obedience which they ought to the king. Tyndale. The love and duty I long have ought you. Spelman. [He] said . . . you ought him a thousand pound. Shak.
2. Owned; possessed. [Obs.] The knight the which that castle ought. Spenser.
3. To be bound in duty or by moral obligation. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Rom. xv. 1.
4. To be necessary, fit, becoming, or expedient; to behoove; -- in this sense formerly sometimes used impersonally or without a subject expressed. "Well ought us work." Chaucer. To speak of this as it ought, would ask a volume. Milton. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things Luke xxiv. 26.
Note: Ought is now chiefly employed as an auxiliary verb, expressing fitness, expediency, propriety, moral obligation, or the like, in the action or state indicated by the principal verb.
Syn.
– Ought, Should. Both words imply obligation, but ought is the stronger. Should may imply merely an obligation of propriety, expendiency, etc.; ought denotes an obligation of duty.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
22 February 2025
(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ‘the father of the bride’ instead of ‘the bride’s father’
Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.
