BEHOLDEN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does beholden mean? 

• BEHOLDEN (adjective)
  The adjective BEHOLDEN has 1 sense:

1. under a moral obligation to someone

  Familiarity information: BEHOLDEN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEHOLDEN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Under a moral obligation to someone

Similar:

obligated (caused by law or conscience to follow a certain course)

 Context examples 

“I am much beholden to you, sir,” said Tranter, though in no very friendly voice.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am thankful for myself, at any rate, that I can find my tiny way through the world, without being beholden to anyone; and that in return for all that is thrown at me, in folly or vanity, as I go along, I can throw bubbles back.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But I am much beholden to you, gentle sirs.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We are much beholden to you! cried the mayor But I cannot see, my lord, how, without a war-ship, you may venture against these men.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Father, I am much beholden to this young clerk, who was of service to me and helped me this very morning in Minstead Woods, four miles to the north of the Christchurch road, where I had no call to be, you having ordered it otherwise.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But he was always a poor, fond, silly creature, was Peter, though we are beholden to him for helping to bury our second son Wat, who was a 'prentice to him at Lymington in the year of the Black Death. But who are you, young sir?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)