n. & adv. See Aught. [ 1913 Webster ]

imp., p. p., or auxiliary. [ Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. āhte. √110. See Owe. ] 1. Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

This due obedience which they ought to the king. Tyndale. [ 1913 Webster ]

The love and duty I long have ought you. Spelman. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ He ] said . . . you ought him a thousand pound. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Owned; possessed. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The knight the which that castle ought. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To be bound in duty or by moral obligation. [ 1913 Webster ]

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Rom. xv. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To be necessary, fit, becoming, or expedient; to behoove; -- in this sense formerly sometimes used impersonally or without a subject expressed. “Well ought us work.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

To speak of this as it ought, would ask a volume. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? Luke xxiv. 26. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Ought is now chiefly employed as an auxiliary verb, expressing fitness, expediency, propriety, moral obligation, or the like, in the action or state indicated by the principal verb. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Ought, Should. Both words imply obligation, but ought is the stronger. Should may imply merely an obligation of propriety, expendiency, etc.; ought denotes an obligation of duty. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being as a thing ought to be; rightness. [ R. ] N. W. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]