owe

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“
For millions of homeowners watching the price of their homes fall below the mortgages they owe, the question is whether to pay or default.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. transitive verb To be indebted to the amount of: He owes me five dollars.
  2. transitive verb To have a moral obligation to render or offer: I owe them an apology.
  3. transitive verb To be in debt to: We owe the plumber for services rendered.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • So let me lay out the financial consequences of failing to file and failure to pay what you owe, and see if this doesn't put a little scare in you: > —  Keepingitreal
  • If you cannot pay any or part of the taxes you owe, at least file your return. —  Keepingitreal
  • Well let's get serious about this - the debt is what we owe, the deficit is just how much more we're piling up. —  QandO
  • So I'd spend a few minutes using one of these Web apps to find out if you might owe, and then making payment arrangements accordingly. mail it to the IRS. —  About.com Tax Planning: U.S.
  • Below are the 3 individuals who I would dare to classify as criminals and IRS tax evaders (assuming Barack Obama and the Democrats havent passed the Fairness Doctrine in order to limit dissenting opinions like mine) and a brief discription of how much they owe, their status in the appointment process and my views on their TAX EVASION!!!! —  Progressive U - The new media voice for students
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English owen, from Old English āgan, to possess; see aik- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English owen, oʒen, awen, aʒen (preterit ought, aught, ahte, etc., past participle owen, awen, aʒen, etc.), from Anglo-Saxon āgan (present indicative āh, preterit āhte, past participle āgen), have, possess, = Old Saxon ēgan = OFries. aga = Old High German eigan, Middle High German eigen = Icelandic eiga = Swedish äga = Danish eie = Gothic (Moesogothic) aigan (present aih), have, possess; akin to Sanskrit √iç, possess. From this verb, from the preterit (Anglo-Saxon āhte), comes the English ought, now used as an auxiliary; from the past participle (Anglo-Saxon āgen), the English adjective own, and from that the verb own, which has taken the place of owe in its orig. sense ‘possess,’ owe having become restricted to the sense of obligation. See own, adjective, own, v.
  2. A variant of own, by confusion with owe.
 

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/oʊ/
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