ought1
[awt]
- (used to express duty or moral obligation): Every citizen ought to help.
- (used to express justice, moral rightness, or the like): He ought to be punished. You ought to be ashamed.
- (used to express propriety, appropriateness, etc.): You ought to be home early. We ought to bring her some flowers.
- (used to express probability or natural consequence): That ought to be our train now.
- duty or obligation.
Origin of ought1
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com1. See must1.
Usage note
Ought1 forms its negative in a number of ways. Ought not occurs in all types of speech and writing and is fully standard: The conferees ought not to waste time on protocol. Oughtn't, largely a spoken form, is found mainly in the Midland and Southern dialects of the United States, where it is almost the universal form. Hadn't ought is a common spoken form in the Northern dialect area. It is sometimes condemned in usage guides and is uncommon in educated speech except of the most informal variety. Didn't ought and shouldn't ought are considered nonstandard.
Both positive and negative forms of ought are almost always followed by the infinitive form: We ought to go now. You ought not to worry about it. Occasionally, to is omitted after the negative construction: Congress ought not adjourn without considering this bill.
Both positive and negative forms of ought are almost always followed by the infinitive form: We ought to go now. You ought not to worry about it. Occasionally, to is omitted after the negative construction: Congress ought not adjourn without considering this bill.
ought2
[awt]
ought3
[awt]
aught1
or ought
[awt]
- anything whatever; any part: for aught I know.
- Archaic. in any degree; at all; in any respect.
Origin of aught1
before 1000; Middle English aught, ought, Old English āht, āwiht, ōwiht, equivalent to ā, ō ever + wiht thing, wight1
aught2
or ought
[awt]
- a cipher (0); zero.
- aughts, the first decade of any century, especially the years 1900 through 1909 or 2000 through 2009.
Origin of aught2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for oughts
Historical Examples
But don't you see I have grown up outside the pale of duty and 'oughts.'
Wives and DaughtersElizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
There are no oughts in my life which I have gotten from my father.
Child Versus ParentStephen Wise
He ought to have been inside at his business; but oughts went for little with Cyril.
Mrs. Halliburton's TroublesMrs. Henry Wood
You have a special apparatus within you for dealing with a universe where oughts are flagrantly disregarded.
The Human MachineE. Arnold Bennett
Why, I towld him av he guv the boys a promise, he oughts never to go back from his word.
The Macdermots of BallycloranAnthony Trollope
ought1
- to indicate duty or obligationyou ought to pay your dues
- to express prudent expediencyyou ought to be more careful with your money
- (usually with reference to future time) to express probability or expectationyou ought to finish this work by Friday
- to express a desire or wish on the part of the speakeryou ought to come next week
Word Origin
Old English āhte, past tense of āgan to owe; related to Gothic aihta
usage
In correct English, ought is not used with did or had. I ought not to do it, not I didn't ought to do it; I ought not to have done it, not I hadn't ought to have done it
ought2
- a variant spelling of aught 1
ought3
- a less common word for nought (def. 1)
Word Origin
C19: mistaken division of a nought as an ought; see nought
aught1
ought used with a negative or in conditional or interrogative sentences or clauses
archaic, or literary
- anything at all; anything whatever (esp in the phrase for aught I know)
- dialect in any least part; to any degree
Word Origin
Old English āwiht, from ā ever, ay 1 + wiht thing; see wight 1
aught2
ought
- a less common word for nought
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for oughts
aught
n.1
"something," Old English awiht "aught, anything, something," literally "e'er a whit," from Proto-Germanic *aiwi "ever" (from PIE *aiw- "vital force, life, long life, eternity;" see eon) + *wihti "thing, anything whatever" (see wight). In Shakespeare, Milton and Pope, aught and ought occur indiscriminately.
aught
ought
v.
Old English ahte "owned, possessed," past tense of agan "to own, possess, owe" (see owe). As a past tense of owe, it shared in that word's evolution and meant at times in Middle English "possessed" and "under obligation to pay." It has been detached from owe since 17c., though he aught me ten pounds is recorded as active in East Anglian dialect from c.1825. As an auxiliary verb expressing duty or obligation (late 12c., the main modern use), it represents the past subjunctive.
ought
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper