Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Ought?

\Ought\ ([add]t), n. & adv. See {Aught}.
\Ought\, imp., p. p., or auxiliary. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. [=a]hte. [root]110. 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}. Usage: 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.