INDEX:
1. to owe money to someone
2. to owe a lot of money
3. to begin to owe money
4. money that someone owes
5. when debts have not been paid
6. someone who owes money
7. someone that money is owed to
8. to not owe any money
9. to agree that money that someone owes does not have to be paid
RELATED WORDS
see also
↑ BORROW
↑ LEND
↑ PAY
↑ MONEY
◆◆◆
1. to owe money to someone
▷ owe /əʊ/ [transitive verb]
if you owe someone money, you have to pay them, either because you borrowed money from them or because you got something from them and have not yet paid for it :
▪ The business collapsed, owing $50 million.
▪ His job was to phone people who owed money and demand immediate payment.
owe somebody something
▪ You still owe me $5.
owe something to somebody
▪ We owe a lot of money to the bank.
owe somebody something for something
▪ How much do we owe you for the milk?
▷ be in debt /biː ɪn ˈdet/ [verb phrase]
if you are in debt, you owe a lot of money and you have difficulty paying it :
▪ The helpline offers financial advice to people who are in debt.
get into debt
start being in debt
▪ We got into debt when my wife lost her job.
be £1000/$2000 etc in debt
owe that amount
▪ The report showed that most students were over £1000 in debt on leaving college.
be heavily in debt
owe a very large amount of money
▪ Karen was forced to give up her job to look after her daughter, and the family is now heavily in debt.
▷ be overdrawn /biː ˌəʊvəʳˈdrɔːn/ [verb phrase]
to owe money to your bank because you have spent more than you had in your bank account :
▪ I’m always overdrawn at the end of the month.
be $100/£200 etc overdrawn
▪ The bank wrote to tell us we were $500 overdrawn.
▷ be in the red /biː ɪn ðə ˈred/ [verb phrase]
to have spent more than you have earned :
▪ My son’s bank account is usually in the red.
▪ After five quarters in the red, the business will soon be profitable.
be deep in the red
owe a lot more than you have
▪ Overseas payments could keep the country deep in the red for the next decade.
▷ be in arrears /biː ɪn əˈrɪəʳz/ [verb phrase]
to have not paid money, such as rent, that you should pay at a particular time every month, year etc - used especially in official or legal documents :
▪ Two out of three tenants are in arrears.
be 6 months/3 weeks etc in arrears
▪ The number of mortgages over 12 months in arrears is rising.
be £1000/$200 etc in arrears
▪ The country is reported to be $6 billion in arrears on its $115 billion debt.
be in arrears with/on
▪ The courts can obtain payments for those in arrears with consumer credit agreements.
▷ be behind with /biː bɪˈhaɪnd wɪð/ [verb phrase]
to have not paid an amount that you should pay regularly at the right time :
▪ I have no money in my bank account, and I’m behind with my rent.
fall behind with something
▪ Unemployment is the major cause of people falling behind with their mortgage repayments.
2. to owe a lot of money
▷ be deep/heavily in debt /biː ˌdiːp, ˌhevə̇li ɪn ˈdet/ [verb phrase]
to owe a lot more money than you can pay :
▪ When my father died we discovered that he was heavily in debt.
▪ A disastrous attempt to expand left the airline deep in debt.
be deep/heavily in debt to
▪ The country is already heavily in debt to foreign banks.
▷ be up to your neck/ears in debt /biː ˌʌp tə jɔːʳ ˌnek, ˌɪəʳz ɪn ˈdet/ [verb phrase] informal
to owe very large sums of money that you cannot pay :
▪ Knowing that I was up to my ears in debt, Edwin offered to help me out.
▪ When their business failed, they found themselves up to their necks in debt.
3. to begin to owe money
▷ get into debt /ˌget ɪntə ˈdet/ [verb phrase]
▪ The only way we could avoid getting into debt was to borrow money from our parents.
get heavily into debt
begin to owe a lot of money
▪ They got so heavily into debt that they couldn’t even pay the interest on their loans.
▷ run up a debt /ˌrʌn ʌp ə ˈdet/ [verb phrase]
to allow your debts to increase quickly, especially by continuing to spend money that you do not really have :
▪ The government has run up an unrepayable debt of $6 billion.
run up debts
▪ I’m not in the habit of running up debts.
▪ His son was wild and irresponsible and had run up debts that he expected his father to pay.
▷ default /dɪˈfɔːlt/ [intransitive verb]
to not pay back a debt that you should pay according to the law :
▪ If the purchaser defaults, the house becomes the property of the savings and loan company.
default on
▪ In those days, anyone who defaulted on a loan was put in prison.
default [countable/uncountable noun]
▪ Loans are often refused to poorer borrowers because the risk of default is greater.
4. money that someone owes
▷ debt /det/ [countable/uncountable noun]
money that you owe, especially a large amount :
▪ Debt is one of the main social problems of our time.
debt of
▪ The government now has debts of $2.5 billion.
pay off/repay a debt
pay all the money that you owe
▪ It took us three years to pay off all our debts.
write off a debt
agree that it will not and does not need to be repaid
▪ He protected less profitable state farms by writing off their debts.
foreign debt
money owed by foreign countries
▪ To pay the interest on our foreign debt, we will have to import less.
a bad debt
a debt that will never be repaid
▪ Lenders must try and protect themselves against bad debts.
▷ overdraft /ˈəʊvəʳdrɑːftǁ-dræft/ [countable noun]
an amount of money that you owe to your bank when you have spent more money that you had in your bank account :
▪ I’ve already got an enormous overdraft.
a £100/$1500 etc overdraft
▪ When he left college, he had a $3000 overdraft.
▷ liabilities /ˌlaɪəˈbɪlɪtiz, ˌlaɪəˈbɪlətiz/ [plural noun]
the debts that a company, government etc is legally responsible to pay - used especially in legal and business contexts :
▪ The chart shows the movements in the company’s liabilities and assets during a particular trading period.
▪ US external net liabilities rose throughout the 1980s.
▷ borrowings /ˈbɒrəʊɪŋzǁˈbɑː-, ˈbɔː-/ [plural noun]
the total amount of money that a company has borrowed and owes - used in business contexts :
▪ Borrowings at the end of the year amounted to nearly $27 million.
▪ The company was now so large it could increase its borrowings to almost any figure it chose.
▷ IOU /ˌaɪ əʊ ˈjuː/ [countable noun]
a note that you write saying that you owe someone money or that you will pay for something later - often used by journalists as an informal word for a legal agreement in which one business or organization owes another money :
▪ Essentially, a bond is an IOU.
give somebody an IOU
▪ There was anger among farmers, who were being given IOUs instead of cash for their crops.
5. when debts have not been paid
▷ unpaid /ˌʌnˈpeɪd◂/ [adjective]
▪ She left a number of unpaid bills when she went back home.
▪ The card holder is liable for any unpaid debts.
go/remain unpaid
▪ Last month they owed £500. This went unpaid and the arrears will total £1000 by December.
▷ due /djuːǁduː/ [adjective not before noun]
an amount of money that is due should be paid now :
▪ The computer printout shows the name and address of the buyer, the quantity ordered and the amount due.
▪ Million dollar interest payments will be due in two years.
▷ outstanding /aʊtˈstændɪŋ/ [adjective]
an amount of money that is outstanding is still owed to someone :
▪ The government plans to reduce its outstanding debt, freeing capital for investment.
▪ The amount outstanding on your house mortgage and any other loans will be counted as liabilities.
▷ owing /ˈəʊɪŋ/ [adjective not before noun]
an amount of money that is owing is still left to be paid :
▪ The total amount owing at the end of ten years will be over $20,000.
▪ Most of the money has been repaid but there is still £5 owing.
6. someone who owes money
▷ debtor /ˈdetəʳ/ [countable noun]
▪ Some of the debtors cannot afford to pay these high interest rates.
▪ Usually, both creditors and debtors are excluded from the sale.
a debtor company/country
▪ Debtor countries cannot develop to their full potential while continuing to pay off such massive foreign debts.
7. someone that money is owed to
▷ creditor /ˈkredɪtəʳ, ˈkredətəʳ/ [countable noun]
▪ When George inherited some money, the first thing he did was to pay his creditors.
▪ The UN warned creditors to ease Brazil’s debt burden or see the country go bankrupt.
8. to not owe any money
▷ be in credit /biː ɪn ˈkredə̇t/ [verb phrase]
if your bank account is in credit, there is money in it and you do not owe the bank anything :
▪ I can see from my monthly bank statements whether I’m in credit or not.
remain/stay in credit
▪ We offer free banking for customers whose accounts remain in credit.
▷ be in the black /biː ɪn ðə ˈblæk/ [verb phrase]
if someone is in the black, they have earned more than they owe or have spent :
▪ The newly reorganized company is now in the black.
▪ Our oil and gas operations are comfortably in the black.
get something into the black
▪ We have to get our account into the black otherwise the bank will never give us a mortgage.
▷ keep your head above water /kiːp jɔːʳ ˌhed əbʌv ˈwɔːtəʳ/ [verb phrase] informal
to stay out of debt, although it is difficult to do this because you have very little money :
▪ Although I’ve been out of a job for three months, I’ve managed to keep my head above water.
▪ If I get this raise, we’ll just about keep our heads above water until next year.
▷ solvent /ˈsɒlv ə ntǁˈsɑːl-/ [adjective]
earning enough money to not have to borrow or get into debt :
▪ We’ve been financially solvent for the last 5 years.
▪ Companies need to know that those with whom they are trading are solvent and can pay for goods and services supplied to them
▷ afloat /əˈfləʊt/ [adverb]
if a company or organization stays or remains afloat, it manages to keep operating because its debts are not so bad that it has to close; if you keep a company or organization afloat, you stop it from getting into so much debt that it has to close :
▪ It was the summer of 1991, and I was struggling hard to keep my business afloat.
▪ David Henry lent the company $1bn out of his own personal fortune in order to help it stay afloat.
▪ The organization remains afloat by renting out its skilled technicians to other companies.
9. to agree that money that someone owes does not have to be paid
▷ write off /ˌraɪt ˈɒf/ [transitive phrasal verb]
to officially say that a company or country no longer has to pay a debt, especially because they will probably never be able to pay it :
write off something
▪ European governments were persuaded to write off the republic’s largest debts.
▪ A number of the company’s debts were written off even before they went bankrupt.
write something off
▪ We’ll never see that money again so we might as well write it off.
write-off /ˈraɪt ɒf/ [countable noun]
▪ The corporation is still suffering from $350 million in losses and write-offs amounts of money written off .