ought
1 Americanauxiliary verb
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(used to express duty or moral obligation).
Every citizen ought to help.
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(used to express justice, moral rightness, or the like).
He ought to be punished. You ought to be ashamed.
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(used to express propriety, appropriateness, etc.).
You ought to be home early. We ought to bring her some flowers.
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(used to express probability or natural consequence).
That ought to be our train now.
noun
noun
verb
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to indicate duty or obligation
you ought to pay your dues
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to express prudent expediency
you ought to be more careful with your money
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(usually with reference to future time) to express probability or expectation
you ought to finish this work by Friday
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to express a desire or wish on the part of the speaker
you ought to come next week
pronoun
noun
Usage
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.
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
Related Words
See must 1.
Etymology
Origin of ought
First recorded before 900; Middle English ought, aught, Old English āhte, past tense of āgan “to owe ”
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.
We ought to be careful about ridding ourselves of all boredom, lest we lose our creativity in the process.
"My experience as prime minister is of frustration that every time I go to pull a lever, there are a whole bunch of regulations, consultations and arm's length bodies that mean the action from pulling the lever to delivery is longer than I think it ought to be, which is among the reasons I want to cut down on regulation generally and within government."
From BBC
“I don’t think they ought to believe me, or they ought to believe Brinkley, or they ought to believe anybody who’s on the air, or they ought to get all their news from one television station,” Cronkite said.
From Los Angeles Times
That’s a wider-than-usual gap that ought to make investors consider 30-year bonds, which can gain value if the stock market or economy sinks.
From Barron's
In this reader’s case, all of the above, which ought to make me a choice candidate for this guide to getting things done.
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.
