beholden
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of beholden
1300–50; Middle English, adj. use of beholden, old past participle of behold
Explanation
The adjective beholden describes owing someone for something the person did to help you — it's your duty to repay the person. If your army buddy saves your life, you're beholden to help him when he gets injured. Being beholden to someone means more than just feeling like you owe someone for a small favor. When you're beholden, it involves a bigger feeling of responsibility, one that sticks with you — and might even weigh on you — until you're able to repay it. Some people feel so uncomfortable being beholden to others that they try not to accept assistance from anyone out of worry over what they'd have to do in return.
Vocabulary lists containing beholden
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Refugee
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Beholden to the ticket machine incessantly spitting out orders, we moved at superhuman speed.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 31, 2024
Beholden Caulfield: The protagonist grows up and takes a job on Madison Avenue to pay off his student loans.
From Washington Post • Oct. 27, 2022
Beholden to more than one front office, these families have a special perspective on the relative winter wimpiness or flintiness of regional school systems.
From Washington Post • Feb. 19, 2019
Beholden to four children and an unsupportive husband, she is underslept and undersocialised, with no life to speak of beyond her role as mom.
From The Guardian • Oct. 2, 2016
Beholden to my daddy and my brother-in-law for the very clothes on my back and the food in my mouth!”
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
