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
We can’t look away — and we oughtn’t, as she argued through the public display of her son’s body.
From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2023
“You people deserve something better than this. You oughtn’t have to work so hard.”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 14, 2019
A: It may help your husband to distinguish the things he ought to discuss with Linda from the things he oughtn’t.
From Slate ● May 1, 2018
‘Bill, my lad,’ he said, ‘you oughtn’t to have took up with us. You could have stayed here and et the best hay till the new grass comes.’
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
