Owe

Definition: Owe

Owe

Verb

1. Be obliged to pay or repay.

2. Be indebted to, in an abstract or intellectual sense; "This new theory owes much to Einstein's Relativity Theory".

3. Be in debt; "She owes me $200"; "The thesis owes much to his adviser".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "owe" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Note: Owe \Owe\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Owed, Ought (Obsolete); present participle verb or noun Owing.]. (references)

Satire

Finance

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Debt

Verb: be in debt; Adjective: owe; incur a debt, contract a debt; Noun: run up a bill, run up a score, run up an account; go on tick; borrow; run into debt, get into debt, outrun the constable; run up debts, run up bills (spend).

Duty

Verb: be the duty of; be incumbent; Adjective: on, be responsible; Adjective: behoove, become, befit, beseem; belong to, pertain to; fall to one's lot; devolve on; lie upon, lie on one's head, lie at one's door; rest with, rest on the shoulders of. take upon oneself; (promise); be bound to, become bound to, be sponsor for, become sponsor for; incur a responsibility; Noun: be under an obligation, stand under an obligation, lie under an obligation; have to answer for, owe to it oneself.

Hate

Owe a grudge; bear spleen, bear a grudge, bear malice; (malevolence); conceive an aversion to, take a dislike to.

Crosswords: Owe

I owe you an apology about Daniel (Bridget Jones's Diary; writing credit: Helen Fielding)

You owe me a copy of the Beach Boy's greatest hits (Rush Hour 2; writing credit: Jeff Nathanson)

Love denied blights the soul we owe to God. (Shakespeare in Love; writing credit: Marc Norman; Tom Stoppard)

I think adults are just children who owe money (Peter's Friends; writing credit: Martin Bergmann and Rita Rudner.)

What's with everyone saying that I owe it to myself (Good Will Hunting; writing credit: Matt Damon; Ben Affleck)

For all lies you told this is what you owe (Hit 'em up Style (Oops!); performing artist: Blu Cantrell)

Here is the money that i owe you (I will buy you a new life; performing artist: Everclear)

Oh, I owe so much to you (There You'll Be; performing artist: Faith Hill)

And I owe it all to you (Differences; performing artist: Ginuwine)

Pay us like you owe us for all the years that you hoed us (Izzo (H.O.V.A.); performing artist: Jay-Z)

We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Adam, the first great benefactor of the human race: he brought death into the world. (references; author: Mark Twain)

Worry is interest paid in advance for a debt you many never owe. (references; author: unknown)

Jesus paid a debt he didn't owe because we had a debt we couldn't pay. (references; author: unknown)

Owe dni (1950)

We Owe It to Our Children (1936)

En Film om Owe (1996)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Does Your Broker Owe You Money? (reference)

• Say Please, Say Thank You: The Respect We Owe One Another (reference)

• What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (reference)

• What You Owe Me (reference)

• You Owe Me (Harlequin Presents) (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• Da Game Owe Me (reference)

• Da Game Owe Me [EXPLICIT LYRICS] (reference)

• I Owe You the Praise (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Women, children & AIDS what's the connection? : you owe it to yourself to find out. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Madame, he said, bowing, I owe you a thousand apologies for disturbing you at this hour. Credit: Library of Congress.

Enter in! you owe no man anything; you owe 90,000,000 Americans everything!. Credit: Library of Congress.

Four years in the fight. The women of France, we owe them houses of cheer. United War Work Campaign. Y.W.C.A. Credit: Library of Congress.

Four years in the fight. The women of France, we owe them houses of cheer. United War Work Campaign. Y.W.C.A. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

If any of our earls or barons, or others holding of us in chief by military service shall have died, and at the time of his death his heir shall be full of age and owe "relief", he shall have his inheritance by the old relief, to wit, the heir or heirs of an earl, for the whole baroncy of an earl by L100; the heir or heirs of a baron, L100 for a whole barony; the heir or heirs of a knight, 100s, at most, and whoever owes less let him give less, according to the ancient custom of fees. (reference)

It is one thing to owe honour, respect, gratitude and assistance; another to require an absolute obedience and submission. (Second Treatise of Government)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

I owe you courtesy

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Civil Liberties

Central African Republic

Travelers can be required to obtain affidavits that they owe no money to the Government or to parastatal companies. (references)

Economic History

Canada

Canada Post also charges a C$5 (approximately US$3.40) processing fee on all packages that owe duty or tax. (references)

Moldova

However, Moldova continues to owe that organization approximately USD 218 million (debt and penalties), not including the USD 611 million that is owed by Transnistria. (references)

Trade

Sri Lanka

Suppliers of standard rate goods and services have to charge GST on sales to customers, who in turn will be able to deduct the amount of tax from the amount they collect and owe to the Government, if such supplies are used in their businesses. (references)

Worker Rights

Macau

These workers often work for less than half of the wages paid to a local resident performing the same job, live in controlled dormitories, work 10 to 12 hours per day, and owe large sums of money to the labor-importing company for the purchase of their jobs. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions using "owe": i owe you ♦ owe money ♦ owe smb. a great deal ♦ owe to it oneself ♦ To owe one a spite. Additional references.

Afrikaans

skuld (debt). (various references)

Albanian

jam në borxh, i kam borxh (owe money), detyrohem. (various references)

Arabic 

‏كن له, ‏مدينا ل, ‏مديون (debtor, due), ‏واجب الأداء (due), ‏أدان بكذا. (various references)

Bulgarian 

задължен съм (be obliged, be under an obligation, oblige), имам дълг към, дължа. (various references)

Chinese 

� (deficient, to lack, yawn). (various references)

Czech

vdìèit, dlužit (debit), být zavázán (be under an obligation), být dlužen. (various references)

Danish

skylde. (various references)

Dutch

in de schuld staan. (various references)

Esperanto

ŝuldi. (various references)

Faeroese

skylda. (various references)

Farsi 

مرهون بودن , مدیون بودن , دارابودن (Contain, Encompass, Enjoy, Have, Own), بدهکاربودن . (various references)

Finnish

olla velkaa. (various references)

French

devoir. (various references)

German

schulden (arrears, debts, liabilities, to owe), schuldig sein (to owe). (various references)

Greek 

οφείλω (be in debt to, must, ought). (various references)

Hebrew 

לחוב, ל�"יות חיב (must, ought), חייב (guilty, must). (various references)

Hungarian

tartozik valakinek valamivel, köszön valamit valakinek, adós (debtor, indebted). (various references)

Indonesian

berhutang (debit, indebted). (various references)

Italian

dovere (be bound to, be compelled to, be due, be forced to, be to, charge, duty, feel bound to, have to, must, need, obligation, office, ought, ought to, shall, should, take). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

� う (to bear, to owe). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

おう (depression, female phoenix bird, hollow, king, monarch, old man, ruler, sovereign, sunken, to bear, to chase, to cut, to grow, to owe, to run after, to spring up, venerable), お�"がある (to be in one's debt, to owe a debt of gratitude). (various references)

Korean 

빚지� 있으십시�". (various references)

Manx

lhiastyn (owing), fo lhiastynys (indebted, obligated). (various references)

Maya

pax (to owe). (various references)

Papiamen

debe (debt). (various references)

Pig Latin

oweay.(various references)

Portuguese

dever (be obliged, charge, debt, devoir, duty, have to, must, obligation, office, onus, ought, ought to, place, shall, should, thank, trust, would). (various references)

Romanian

fi obligat la, fi dator, fi îndatorat pentru, datora. (various references)

Russian 

быть в долгу, быть обязанный (be obligated to, owe the), быть обязанным кому-л., быть должным (have to). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

dugovati, biti dužan. (various references)

Spanish

deber (due, duty, encumbrance, job, must, obligation, onus, ought, part, remit, shall, should, suppose, task, term, thing, trust). (various references)

Swedish

vara skyldig. (various references)

Thai

เป็นหนี้บุญคุ�" (beholden), เป็นหนี้. (various references)

Turkish

minnettar olmak (appreciate, be grateful, be in smb.'s debt, be indebted to smb., be obliged, be obliged to, be under an obligation), duymak (bear, come to know, feel, hear), borçlu olmak (be in debt, be in smb.'s debt, be under an obligation). (various references)

Ukrainian

мати моральний борг, завдячувати комусь, заборгувати комусь, бути винним, бути в боргу перед кимсь. (various references)

Welsh

dylu (ought, should). (various references)

debeam, debeamus, debeant, debeas, debeat, debeatis, debebantur, debebat, debebatis, debebunt, debemus, debent, debenti, debentur, debeo, debere, deberent, deberet, deberetis, debes, debet, debetis, debetur, debita, debitam, debitos, debitum, debueras, debuerat, debueratis, debuere, debueritis, debui, debuimus, debuisti, debuit. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations

Words beginning with "owe": owed, owes. (additional references)

Words ending with "owe": howe, lowe, yowe. (additional references)

Words containing "owe": airpower, airpowers, allowed, allowedly, arrowed, avowed, avowedly, avower, avowers, beflower, beflowered, beflowering, beflowers, bellflower, bellflowers, bellowed, bellower, bellowers, beshadowed, besnowed, bestowed, bestrowed, billowed, blanketflower, blanketflowers, blowed, blower, blowers, borrowed, borrower, borrowers, bowed, bowel, boweled, boweling, bowelled, bowelless, bowelling, bowels, bower, bowerbird, bowerbirds, bowered, boweries, bowering, bowers, bowery, bowwowed, brainpower, brainpowers, browed. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Owe" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Aoew, aowe, cwe, dowi, eowe, fowe, gowe, Iowme, i-wb, Iwe, iwi, jowe, lwe, oawe, oce, ocee, oeoe, oew, ofe, ofee, Ofw, oge, ogwr, ohe, oie, oje, okw, ome, Onwe, opw, oqe, Osee, oswel, oui, ouoe, ouw, ow, owa, owan, oway, owd, ower, owet, owf, owi, owie, owne, Owo, owoe, owon, owr, ows, owt, owte, oww, owww, owwww, owy, oxe, Oxw, oye, Oyw, oze, ozee, uw, uwe, wobe, woea, woje, wowee, zowe. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: woe.

-1 letter: oe, ow, we, wo.

+1 letter: enow, howe, lowe, meow, owed, owes, owse, woes, woke, wore, wove, yowe.

+2 letters: awoke, below, bowed, bowel, bower, bowse, cowed, cower, dowed, dowel, dower, dowie, dowse, elbow, embow, endow, enows, howes, jowed, lowed, lower, lowes, lowse, meows, mowed, mower, owlet, owned, owner, owsen, power, resow, rewon, rowed, rowel, rowen, rower, serow, sowed, sower, swore, towed, towel, tower, towie, vowed, vowel, vower, whole, whore, whose, wodge, woken, women, wooed, wooer, worse, woven, wowed, wrote, yowed, yowes, yowie, zowie.