in arrears

plural noun

the state of being behind or late, especially in the fulfillment of a duty, promise, obligation, or the like: Many homeowners have fallen into arrears.

Sometimes, arrear. something overdue in payment; a debt that remains unpaid: Those countries that have paid their arrears may be granted additional loans.

Idioms

in arrears, behind or late, especially in payment: She was three months in arrears on her mortgage and credit card payments. Also, Chiefly Law, in arrear.

Origin:
1300–50; noun use of arrear (adv., now obsolete), Middle English arere behind < Middle French ≪ Latin ad retrō. See ad-, retro-

Related forms

ar·rear·age, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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In arrears is always a great word to know.

So is ort. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

arrears (əˈrɪəz)

—n
1.	(sometimes singular) Also called: arrearage something outstanding or owed
2.	in arrears, in arrear late in paying a debt or meeting an obligation

[C18: from obsolete arrear (adv) behindhand, from Old French arere, from Medieval Latin adretrō, from Latin ad to + retrō backwards]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

arrears

early 14c., from O.Fr. ariere "behind, backward," from V.L. *ad retro, from L. ad "to" + retro "behind." Meaning "balance due" dates from mid-15c.; phrase in arrears first recorded 1620, but in arrearages is from late 14c.

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

in arrears

Late or behind, especially in payment of money. For example, He's been in arrears on his rent so often that he may be evicted. [First half of 1600s]

Matching Quote

"Observation is so wide awake, and facts are being so rapidly added to the sum of human experience, that it appears as if the theorizer would always be in arrears, and were doomed forever to arrive at imperfect conclusions; but the power to perceive a law is equally rare in all ages of the world, and depends but little on the number of facts observed. The senses of the savage will furnish him with facts enough to set him up as a philosopher. The ancients can still speak to us with authority, even on the themes of geology and chemistry, though these subjects are thought to have had their birth in modern times."

-Henry David Thoreau

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in arrears

ar·rears