Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Payable immediately or on demand.
- adj. Owed as a debt; owing: the amount still due.
- adj. In accord with right, convention, or courtesy; appropriate: due esteem; all due respect.
- adj. Meeting special requirements; sufficient: We have due cause to honor them.
- adj. Expected or scheduled, especially appointed to arrive: Their plane is due in 15 minutes.
- adj. Expected to give birth.
- adj. Anticipated; looked for: a long due promotion.
- adj. Expecting or ready for something as part of a normal course or sequence: We're due for some rain. This batter is due for another hit.
- adj. Capable of being attributed. See Usage Note at due to.
- n. Something owed or deserved: You finally received your due.
- n. A charge or fee for membership, as in a club or organization.
- adv. Straight; directly: Go due west.
- adv. Archaic Duly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Owed; payable as an obligation; that may be demanded” as a debt: as, the interest falls due next month.
- Owing by right of circumstances or condition; that ought to be given or rendered; proper to be conferred or devoted: as, to receive one with due honor or courtesy.
- According to requirement or need; suitable to the case; determinate; settled; exact: as, he arrived in due time or course.
- That is to be expected or looked for; under engagement as to time; promised: as, the train is due at noon; he is due in New York tomorrow.
- Owing; attributable, as to a cause or origin; assignable: followed by to: as, the delay was due to an accident.
- In law:
- Owing, irrespective of whether the time of payment has arrived: as, money is said to be due to creditors although not yet payable.
- Presently payable; already matured: as, a note is said to be due on the third day of grace.
- n. That which is owed; that which is required by an obligation of any kind, as by contract, by law, or by official, social, or religious relations, etc.; a debt; an obligation.
- n. Specifically.
- n. Any toll, tribute, fee, orother legal exaction: as, custora-house dues; excise dues.
- n. Right; just title.
- Directly; exactly: only with reference to the points of the compass: as, a due east course.
- To endue; endow.
Wiktionary
- adj. Owed or owing
- adj. Appropriate.
- adj. Scheduled; expected.
- adj. Having reached the expected, scheduled, or natural time
- adv. used with compass directions Directly; exactly.
- n. Deserved acknowledgment.
- n. A membership fee.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Owed, as a debt; that ought to be paid or done to or for another; payable; owing and demandable.
- adj. Justly claimed as a right or property; proper; suitable; becoming; appropriate; fit.
- adj. Such as (a thing) ought to be; fulfilling obligation; proper; lawful; regular; appointed; sufficient; exact.
- adj. Appointed or required to arrive at a given time.
- adj. Owing; ascribable, as to a cause.
- adv. Directly; exactly.
- n. That which is owed; debt; that which one contracts to pay, or do, to or for another; that which belongs or may be claimed as a right; whatever custom, law, or morality requires to be done; a fee; a toll.
- n. Right; just title or claim.
- v. obsolete To endue.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. scheduled to arrive
- adv. directly or exactly; straight.
- adj. suitable to or expected in the circumstances
- adj. capable of being assigned or credited to
- n. a payment that is due (e.g., as the price of membership)
- n. that which is deserved or owed
- adj. owed and payable immediately or on demand
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French deu ("due"), past participle of devoir ("to owe"), from Latin debere ("to owe"), from de ("from") + habere ("to have") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French deu, past participle of devoir, to owe, from Latin dēbēre. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But, just as in the case of the passage from the non-mental to the mental, &c., this passage may have been _ultimately_ due to divine volition, and _must have been so due_ on the theory of Theism.”
“Though nothing be due to the absent man, somewhat is_ _due to myself.”
“_i. e._ by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. '_due_ feet,' _Il”
“As unattached women, particularly as women of his own family, his support and protection, as he puts it, are due you, _due_ you! ”
The Sturdy Oak A composite Novel of American Politics by fourteen American authors
“He was signed to Capitol Records, which released his 2003 and 2006 albums, but was later dropped from the label due to low sales.”
Voice of America: 'A Capitol Fourth' Features All-Star Cast; Jill Scott Scores Hit Album
“President Johnson had become a virtual prisoner in the White House, unable to campaign for another term due to increasingly violent protests against the unpopular Vietnam War.”
“According to the lawsuit, Dr. Dre has not seen any royalties from his groundbreaking hit album The Chronic since 1996, the year he left the label due to a strained relationship with Knight.”
“With his term due to expire next year, the government brought new charges against Khodorkovsky and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev.”
“In March 1998 she was named to the Conseil Constitutionnel (the highest legal authority in France and the judicial component in the governmental system of checks and balances, along with the executive and legislative branches) with her term due to expire in March 2007.”
“The AWA had stripped Byers of her title due to not showing up for a title defense.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘due’.
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3-Letter Scrabble Words Which Do Not ...
A list of 3-letter words which cannot be formed by adding a letter to a 2-letter word (see Ken Clark's word lists found at http://www.seattlescrab...
ace, act, aff, aft, apo, app, apt, auk, ava, ave, avo, azo and 225 more...
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multiple meaning words
These words seem very familiar but are awfully-versatile and oftentimes serve senses exceptionally beyond people's presumptions ...
sense, serve, please, say, profile, draw, weather, bear, project, ship, profiler, tune and 140 more...
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EN - Glasgow stop list
Words to be replaced by a paragraph mark if you are after terms and MWEs.
about, above, across, after, afterwards, again, against, all, almost, alone, along, already and 291 more...
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Words in which "u" is pronounced "yu"
cute, uniform, puny, municipal, butte, fume, perfume, puke, cucumber, huge, demure, cube and 95 more...
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Time
clock, forever, never, ever, ago, when, then, now, past, present, future, timeline and 119 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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Transitional and otherwise
then, consequently, thus, hence, so, ergo, wherefore, henceforward, to that end, to this end, accordingly, as a result and 34 more...
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Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
mortgage, fiddling, rage, kick, stroke, dodge, hunch, scratch, covetous, rank, trickle, budget and 179 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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3LW
3 letter words, not the girl band.
boggle and speed scrabble would not be half as fun without them.aah, boa, dot, fun, ick, log, oca, pyx, sos, was, aal, bob and 342 more...
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Masonry
Due to my absolute ignorance of masonry and masonic terms, this list is shamelessly copied from this masonic dictionary.
Feel free to add words (as soon as I complete my transcription).abif, accepted, accord, active member, adjournment, admonish, adoration, adversity, affiliate, affirmation, lawful age, aid of deity and 143 more...
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Prosie: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ad...
(Given Saturday, March 4, 1865, Washington, D.C.)
Fellow-Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended a...with all nations, among ourselves, a just and lastin..., cherish, achieve, to do all, for his widow and..., to care for him w..., to bind up the na..., let us strive on ..., with firmness in ..., with charity for all and 169 more...
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GRE AWA
escalating, vehement, vehemence, hostility, paparazzi, regime, irrespective, scoop, exaggerated, overblown, unfetter, scrupulous and 272 more...
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hard to sense
somewhat, somewhere, elsewhere, whereby, likewise, spite, ever, along, otherwise, whatever, whichever, hitherto and 116 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Whatever Works (2009)
Words from 2009 'Whatever Works' film.
fault, racket, unto, flaw, fallacious, notion, decent, embalm, filch, delusion, delusions of gran..., grandeur and 135 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for due.

qroqqa A syntactically unusual adjective in that it can take a noun phrase complement ('We are due a refund'). This suggests it is actually a preposition. In fact, one of the tests for preposition vs adjective shows it is both, in different senses. The test is that when an adjective heads a preposed adjunct ('Afraid of the dark, she . . .') it has to be predicated of the following subject, but with prepositions it doesn't have to ('Ahead of her in the dark, she noticed . . .')
When 'due' means 'owed' it is an adjective because it requires predication of the subject:
Due a £1000 tax refund, we can finally afford that new sofa.
* Due a £1000 tax refund, that new sofa looks like a bargain.
But when it means 'because of' it is a preposition because it doesn't:
Due to a £1000 tax refund, that new sofa looks like a bargain.
(I'd never understood Fowler's condemnation of one to-him recent use of 'due', and just now I realized that this is probably it, the non-predicated use, so I must go back and read that bit in Modern English Usage to see if by George I've got it.)
Note that preposition 'due' requires a following PP headed by 'to'. Adjective 'due' can also be followed by a 'to'-PP: 'the refund/respect due to us'. Jul 12, 2009