due
- owed at present; having reached the date for payment: This bill is due.
- owing or owed, irrespective of whether the time of payment has arrived: This bill is due next month.
- owing or observed as a moral or natural right.
- rightful; proper; fitting: due care; in due time.
- adequate; sufficient: a due margin for delay.
- under engagement as to time; expected to be ready, be present, or arrive; scheduled: The plane is due at noon.
- something that is due, owed, or naturally belongs to someone.
- Usually dues. a regular fee or charge payable at specific intervals, especially to a group or organization: membership dues.
- directly or exactly: a due east course.
- Obsolete. duly.
- due to,
- attributable to; ascribable to: The delay was due to heavy traffic.
- because of; owing to: All planes are grounded due to fog.
- give someone his/her due,
- to give what justice demands; treat fairly: Even though he had once cheated me, I tried to give him his due.
- to credit a disliked or dishonorable person for something that is likable, honorable, or the like.
- pay one's dues, to earn respect, a position, or a right by hard work, sacrifice, or experience: She's a famous musician now, but she paid her dues with years of practice and performing in small towns.
Origin of due
Usage note
Pronunciation note
a due
- together; in unison.
- divisi.
Origin of a due
Related Words for due
scheduled, owed, outstanding, payable, expected, overdue, deserved, right, repayment, rate, compensation, interest, payment, IOU, collectible, good, fit, fair, fitting, comingExamples from the Web for due
Contemporary Examples of due
With all due respect to his athletic skill, Gronkowski is not high on the list of NFL players that elicit carnal thoughts.
I was pregnant, uncomfortably so, for the first time and with twins, due the following March.
But most of this gap, say the researchers who carried out the study, is due to discrimination.
There were also crashes not due to either mechanical or human error but to a lack of warning of dangerous conditions.
Due to the video lacking audio, what they were fighting about remains a mystery—“was Jay cheating?”
Historical Examples of due
They've put lots of good weight-carriers off the track before they was due to go.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
All is prepared—the table and the feast— With due appurtenance of clothes and cushions.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
Boy, they be not due to you till you be come to years of discretion.
The Armourer's PrenticesCharlotte M. Yonge
I don't want to trouble him, but I was bound he shouldn't keep from me what was rightly my due.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Often enough these innovations were not due to the cleverness of man's brain.
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
due
- (postpositive) immediately payable
- (postpositive) owed as a debt, irrespective of any date for payment
- requisite; fitting; proper
- (prenominal) adequate or sufficient; enough
- (postpositive) expected or appointed to be present or arrivethe train is now due
- due to attributable to or caused by
- something that is owed, required, or due
- give a person his due to give or allow a person what is deserved or right
- directly or exactly; straighta course due west
Word Origin for due
usage
Word Origin and History for due
early 14c., "customary, regular;" mid-14c., "owing, payable," from Old French deu, past participle of devoir "to owe," from Latin debere "to owe" (see debt).
In reference to points of the compass (e.g. due east) it is attested from c.1600, originally nautical, from notion of "fitting, rightful." As an adverb from 1590s; as a noun from early 15c. Prepositional phrase due to (much maligned by grammarians) is from 1897.
Idioms and Phrases with due
due
In addition to the idiom beginning with due
- due to
also see:
- give credit (where it's due)
- give someone his or her due
- give the devil his due
- in due course
- pay one's dues
- with all due respect