Ought

Part of speech: noun (n.)

See Aught.

Part of speech: participle (p.)

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.

Synonyms: 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.