Ought , imp., p. p., or auxiliary. [Orig. the preterit of the verb
to owe. OE. oughte,
aughte, ahte, AS. āhte.
√110. See Owe.]
1. Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Obs.]
This due obedience which they ought to the king.
Tyndale. The love and
duty I long
have ought you.
Spelman. [He] said . . . you ought him a thousand pound.
Shak. 2. Owned; possessed.
[Obs.]
The knight the which that castle ought.
Spenser.
3. To be bound in duty
or by moral
obligation.
We then that
are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.
Rom. xv. 1.
4. To be necessary, fit, becoming, or expedient; to behoove; -- in this sense formerly sometimes used
impersonally or without a subject expressed. "Well
ought us work." Chaucer.
To speak of this as it ought, would ask a volume.
Milton.
Ought not
Christ to have suffered these
things?
Luke xxiv. 26. &fist; Ought is now chiefly employed as an auxiliary verb, expressing fitness,
expediency, propriety, moral obligation, or the like, in the action
or state indicated by the principal verb.
Syn. -- Ought, Should. Both words imply obligation, but ought is the stronger. Should may imply merely an obligation of propriety, expendiency, etc.; ought denotes an obligation of duty.
Ought (&add;t),
n. & adv. See Aught.
Hear it pronounced