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13 dictionary results for: Ought

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ought1

[awt] Pronunciation Key

–auxiliary verb

1.	(used to express duty or moral obligation): Every citizen ought to help.

2.	(used to express justice, moral rightness, or the like): He ought to be punished. You ought to be ashamed.

3.	(used to express propriety, appropriateness, etc.): You ought to be home early. We ought to bring her some flowers.

4.	(used to express probability or natural consequence): That ought to be our train now.

–noun

5.	duty or obligation.

[Origin: bef. 900; ME ought, aught, OE āhte, past tense of āgan to owe

]

—Synonyms 1. See must¹.

—Usage note Ought¹ forms its negative in a number of ways. Ought not occurs in all types of speech and writing and is fully standard: The conferees ought not to waste time on protocol. Oughtn't, largely a spoken form, is found mainly in the Midland and Southern dialects of the United States, where it is almost the universal form. Hadn't ought is a common spoken form in the Northern dialect area. It is sometimes condemned in usage guides and is uncommon in educated speech except of the most informal variety. Didn't ought and shouldn't ought are considered nonstandard.
Both positive and negative forms of ought are almost always followed by the infinitive form: We ought to go now. You ought not to worry about it. Occasionally, to is omitted after the negative construction: Congress ought not adjourn without considering this bill.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ought2

[awt] Pronunciation Key

–noun, adverb

aught¹.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ought3

[awt] Pronunciation Key

–noun

aught².

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

aught¹ also ought   (ôt) Pronunciation Key
pron.   Anything whatever: "Neither of his parents had aught but praise for him" (Louis Auchincloss).

adv.   Archaic In any respect; at all.

[Middle English, from Old English āuht; see aiw- in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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aught² also ought (ôt) Pronunciation Key
n.

A cipher; zero.
Archaic Nothing.

[From an aught, alteration of a naught; see naught.]

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ought¹ (ôt) Pronunciation Key
aux.v.

Used to indicate obligation or duty: You ought to work harder than that.
Used to indicate advisability or prudence: You ought to wear a raincoat.
Used to indicate desirability: You ought to have been there; it was great fun.
Used to indicate probability or likelihood: She ought to finish by next week.

[Middle English oughten, to be obliged to, from oughte, owned, from Old English āhte, past tense of āgan, to possess; see aik- in Indo-European roots.]

Usage Note: Unlike other auxiliary verbs, ought usually takes to with its accompanying verb: We ought to go. Sometimes the accompanying verb is dropped if the meaning is clear: Should we begin soon? Yes, we ought to. In questions and negative sentences, especially those with contractions, to is also sometimes omitted: Oughtn't we be going soon? This omission of to, however, is not common in written English. Like must and auxiliary need, ought to does not change to show past tense: He said we ought to get moving along. · Usages such as He hadn't ought to come and She shouldn't ought to say that are common in many varieties of American English. They should be avoided in written English, however, in favor of the more standard variant ought not to.

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ought² (ôt) Pronunciation Key
pron. & adv.
Variant of aught¹.

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ought³ (ôt) Pronunciation Key
n. Variant of aught².

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ought⁴ (ôt) Pronunciation Key
v. Obsolete
A past participle of owe.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
ought (v.)

O.E. ahte, pt. of agan "to own, possess, owe" (see owe). As a past tense of owe, it shared in that word's evolution and meant at times in M.E. "possessed" and "under obligation to pay." It has been detached from owe since 17c., though he aught me ten pounds is recorded as active in E.Anglian dialect from c.1825. As an auxiliary verb expressing duty or obligation (c.1175, the main modern use), it represents the past subjunctive.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
ought (n.)

"zero, cipher," 1844, probably a misdivision of a nought (see nought), meaning probably influenced by aught "anything" (q.v.).

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Ought

Ought\ ([add]t), n. & adv. See Aught.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Ought

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.

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