Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Payable immediately or on demand.
- adjective Owed as a debt; owing.
- adjective In accord with right, convention, or courtesy; appropriate.
- adjective Meeting special requirements; sufficient.
- adjective Expected or scheduled, especially appointed to arrive.
- adjective Expected to give birth.
- adjective Anticipated; looked for.
- adjective Expecting or ready for something as part of a normal course or sequence.
- adjective Capable of being attributed.
- noun Something owed or deserved.
- noun A charge or fee for membership, as in a club or organization.
- adverb Straight; directly.
- adverb Archaic Duly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To endue; endow.
- Directly; exactly: only with reference to the points of the compass: as, a due east course.
- Owed; payable as an obligation; that may be demanded” as a debt: as, the interest falls due next month.
- Owing by right of circumstances or condition; that ought to be given or rendered; proper to be conferred or devoted: as, to receive one with due honor or courtesy.
- According to requirement or need; suitable to the case; determinate; settled; exact: as, he arrived in due time or course.
- That is to be expected or looked for; under engagement as to time; promised: as, the train is due at noon; he is due in New York tomorrow.
- Owing; attributable, as to a cause or origin; assignable: followed by to: as, the delay was due to an accident.
- In law:
- Owing, irrespective of whether the time of payment has arrived: as, money is said to be due to creditors although not yet payable.
- Presently payable; already matured: as, a note is said to be due on the third day of grace.
- noun That which is owed; that which is required by an obligation of any kind, as by contract, by law, or by official, social, or religious relations, etc.; a debt; an obligation.
- noun Specifically
- noun Any toll, tribute, fee, orother legal exaction: as, custora-house dues; excise dues.
- noun Right; just title.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun That which is owed; debt; that which one contracts to pay, or do, to or for another; that which belongs or may be claimed as a right; whatever custom, law, or morality requires to be done; a fee; a toll.
- noun Right; just title or claim.
- transitive verb obsolete To endue.
- adverb Directly; exactly.
- adjective Owed, as a debt; that ought to be paid or done to or for another; payable; owing and demandable.
- adjective Justly claimed as a right or property; proper; suitable; becoming; appropriate; fit.
- adjective Such as (a thing) ought to be; fulfilling obligation; proper; lawful; regular; appointed; sufficient; exact
- adjective Appointed or required to arrive at a given time.
- adjective Owing; ascribable, as to a cause.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Owed or owing
- adjective Appropriate.
- adjective Scheduled; expected.
- adjective Having reached the expected, scheduled, or natural time
- adverb used with compass directions
Directly ;exactly . - noun Deserved
acknowledgment . - noun A
membership fee.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective scheduled to arrive
- adverb directly or exactly; straight
- adjective suitable to or expected in the circumstances
- adjective capable of being assigned or credited to
- noun a payment that is due (e.g., as the price of membership)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But, just as in the case of the passage from the non-mental to the mental, &c., this passage may have been _ultimately_ due to divine volition, and _must have been so due_ on the theory of Theism.
Thoughts on Religion George John Romanes 1871
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Though nothing be due to the absent man, somewhat is_ _due to myself.
Jane Talbot Charles Brockden Brown 1790
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_i. e._ by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. '_due_ feet,' _Il
Milton's Comus John Milton 1641
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As unattached women, particularly as women of his own family, his support and protection, as he puts it, are due you, _due_ you! "
The Sturdy Oak A composite Novel of American Politics by fourteen American authors Mary Heaton Vorse 1920
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He was signed to Capitol Records, which released his 2003 and 2006 albums, but was later dropped from the label due to low sales.
'A Capitol Fourth' Features All-Star Cast; Jill Scott Scores Hit Album 2011
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He was signed to Capitol Records, which released his 2003 and 2006 albums, but was later dropped from the label due to low sales.
'A Capitol Fourth' Features All-Star Cast; Jill Scott Scores Hit Album 2011
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He was signed to Capitol Records, which released his 2003 and 2006 albums, but was later dropped from the label due to low sales.
'A Capitol Fourth' Features All-Star Cast; Jill Scott Scores Hit Album 2011
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He was signed to Capitol Records, which released his 2003 and 2006 albums, but was later dropped from the label due to low sales.
'A Capitol Fourth' Features All-Star Cast; Jill Scott Scores Hit Album 2011
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President Johnson had become a virtual prisoner in the White House, unable to campaign for another term due to increasingly violent protests against the unpopular Vietnam War.
The Kennedy Detail Gerald Blaine 2010
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According to the lawsuit, Dr. Dre has not seen any royalties from his groundbreaking hit album The Chronic since 1996, the year he left the label due to a strained relationship with Knight.
qroqqa commented on the word due
A syntactically unusual adjective in that it can take a noun phrase complement ('We are due a refund'). This suggests it is actually a preposition. In fact, one of the tests for preposition vs adjective shows it is both, in different senses. The test is that when an adjective heads a preposed adjunct ('Afraid of the dark, she . . .') it has to be predicated of the following subject, but with prepositions it doesn't have to ('Ahead of her in the dark, she noticed . . .')
When 'due' means 'owed' it is an adjective because it requires predication of the subject:
Due a £1000 tax refund, we can finally afford that new sofa.
* Due a £1000 tax refund, that new sofa looks like a bargain.
But when it means 'because of' it is a preposition because it doesn't:
Due to a £1000 tax refund, that new sofa looks like a bargain.
(I'd never understood Fowler's condemnation of one to-him recent use of 'due', and just now I realized that this is probably it, the non-predicated use, so I must go back and read that bit in Modern English Usage to see if by George I've got it.)
Note that preposition 'due' requires a following PP headed by 'to'. Adjective 'due' can also be followed by a 'to'-PP: 'the refund/respect due to us'.
July 12, 2009