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
19 June 2025
(noun) the condition of belonging to a particular place or group by virtue of social or ethnic or cultural lineage; “his roots in Texas go back a long way”; “he went back to Sweden to search for his roots”; “his music has African roots”
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