oughtn't
AmericanUsage
See contraction, ought 1.
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.
If those claims are true, oughtn’t the grievance go the other way?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
“He oughtn’t be relieved of liability on the transparently false assertion that he believed his own self-serving fiction,” Bowman told me.
From Slate ● Jun. 13, 2022
“You people deserve something better than this. You oughtn’t have to work so hard.”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 14, 2019
He bursts out laughing, and so do I, even though I know I oughtn’t.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 2, 2017
Mason and Dixon sent a note to the Royal Society observing that it seemed awfully dangerous on the high seas and wondering if perhaps the whole thing oughtn’t to be called off.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
