Noun

Singular debt

Plural debts

debt (plural debts)

1. An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
   • 1589, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, act 1, sc. 3,

     Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt

     Of this proud king, who studies day and night

     To answer all the debt he owes to you

     Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, ch. 14,

     This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.

2. The state or condition of owing something to another.

   I am in your debt.

3. Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction.
   • 1919, Upton Sinclair, Jimmie Higgins, ch. 15,

     Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.

Derived terms

• bad debt
• debt-equity ratio
• debt-laden
• domestic debt

• external debt
• foreign debt
• in debt
• national debt

Related terms

• debit
• debitor
• debtor
• indebted

Debt is that which is owed; usually referencing assets owed, but the term can also cover moral obligations and other interactions not requiring money. In the case of assets, debt is a means of using future purchasing power in the present before a summation has been earned. Some companies and corporations use debt as a part of their overall corporate finance strategy.

A debt is created when a creditor agrees to lend a sum of assets to a debtor. In modern society, debt is usually granted with expected repayment; in many cases, plus interest. Historically, debt was responsible for the creation of indentured servants.

Debt is that which is owed; usually referencing assets owed, but the term can cover other obligations. A debt is created when a creditor agrees to loan a sum of assets to a debtor.

Sourced

• It shows nobility to be willing to increase your debt to a man to whom you already owe much.
  • Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, II, 6, 2 (43 BC)

• A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
  • Alexander Hamilton, Letter (April 30, 1781)

• Be assured that it gives much more pain to the mind to be in debt, than to do without any article whatever which we may seem to want.
  • Thomas Jefferson, Letter to his daughter, Martha Jefferson (June 14, 1787)

• Live within your means, never be in debt, and by husbanding your money you can always lay it out well. But when you get in debt you become a slave. Therefore I say to you never involve yourself in debt, and become no man’s surety. If your friend is in distress, aid him if you have the means to spare. If he fails to be able to return it, it is only so much lost.
  • Andrew Jackson, Letter to his ward Andrew Jackson Hutchings (April 18, 1833)

• You must, to get through life well, practice industry with economy, never create a debt for anything that is not absolutely necessary, and if you make a promise to pay money at a day certain, be sure to comply with it. If you do not, you lay yourself liable to have your feelings injured and your reputation destroyed with the just imputation of violating your word.
  • Andrew Jackson, Letter to Andrew Jackson, Jr. (April 14, 1835)

• There are two things that bestow consequence; great possession, or great debts.
  • Reverend Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832), English cleric and writer. Lacon; or, Many Things in Few Words (1823)

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Fri Feb 26 08:48:51 2010