DEBT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does debt mean? 

• DEBT (noun)
  The noun DEBT has 3 senses:

1. the state of owing something (especially money)

2. money or goods or services owed by one person to another

3. an obligation to pay or do something

  Familiarity information: DEBT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEBT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of owing something (especially money)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

he is badly in debt

Hypernyms ("debt" is a kind of...):

financial obligation; indebtedness; liability (an obligation to pay money to another party)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Money or goods or services owed by one person to another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("debt" is a kind of...):

liabilities (anything that is owed to someone else)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "debt"):

arrears (an unpaid overdue debt)

national debt (the debt of the national government (as distinguished from the debts of individuals and businesses and political subdivisions))

public debt (the total of the nation's debts: debts of local and state and national governments; an indicator of how much public spending is financed by borrowing instead of taxation)

debt ceiling; debt limit (the maximum borrowing power of a governmental entity)

bad debt (a debt that is unlikely to be repaid)

installment debt (debt to be paid by installments)

loan (the temporary provision of money (usually at interest))

principal (the original amount of a debt on which interest is calculated)

score (an amount due (as at a restaurant or bar))

Sense 3

Meaning:

An obligation to pay or do something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("debt" is a kind of...):

obligation (a legal agreement specifying a payment or action and the penalty for failure to comply)

 Context examples 

He felt that the ill done White Fang was a debt incurred by man and that it must be paid.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The process of requesting payment of a debt for goods or services.

(Billing, NCI Thesaurus)

Your enormous focus on finding, investing and saving money, and paying debt (taxes, loans, and other obligations) actually started last month on the December 25 new moon solar eclipse.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Do you remember that I tried to tell you, when I came home, what a debt of gratitude I owed you, dearest Agnes, and how fervently I felt towards you?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I owe Jo for a part of my education, and she believes in people's paying their honest debts, so I'll get round her in that way.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"Suppose," he cried with feeble violence, "that all the debts in the world were called up simultaneously, and immediate payment insisted upon,—what under our present conditions would happen then?"

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A person or entity that agrees to be responsible for another's debt or performance under a contract, if the other fails to pay or perform.

(Guarantor, NCI Thesaurus)

"I get into canoe and journey down to Cambell Fort to collect the debt!"

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He is always ready to work off the debt.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For the first time he refused to consider his debts.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)