owe

verbcommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//əʊ//
United States//oʊ//

To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.

verb

1
To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.
We owe it to our children to make our nation a better place to live in the future.
I owe Kevin five bucks which he lent to me last week.
This time I'll cover for you, but now you owe me a favour.
VVe owe God a death, and we can but die:
2
To have debt; to be in debt.
3
To have as a cause; used with to.
The record owes its success to the outstanding guitar solos.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂óyḱe Proto-Germanic *aiganą Proto-West Germanic *aigan Old English āgan Middle English owen English owe From Middle English owen, from Old English āgan, from Proto-West Germanic *aigan (“to own”), from Proto-Germanic *aiganą, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂óyḱe (“to possess, own”), reduplicated stative of *h₂eyḱ- (“to own”). See also own, ought. Cognate with Sanskrit ईष्टे (īṣṭe, “to own, possess”).

Forms

past tense: owed, ought
past participle: owed, ought, own
present participle: owing
third person singular: owes

overwhelmed · Emotionally overpowered.overwhelming · Overpowering, staggering, or irresistibly strong.ow · Synonym of ouch (“cry of pain”).

owe · To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.

owed · That owes.Owen · A male given name. A male given name from Welsh, an…Owens · A surname transferred from the given name.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.