debt S3 W2 /det/ BrE AmE noun
[ Date: 1200-1300 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: dette , from Latin debitum , from debere 'to owe' ]
1 . [countable] a sum of money that a person or organization owes
debt of
She had debts of over £100,000.
He had enough money to pay off his outstanding debts.
students who run up huge debts
2 . [uncountable] when you owe money to someone OPP credit
in debt (to somebody)
Nearly half the students said they were in debt.
The band will be in debt to the record company for years.
£200/$1,000 etc in debt
A rash business decision left him $600 in debt.
get/run/fall etc into debt
The club sank deeper into debt.
be heavily/deeply in debt (=owe a lot of money)
3 . [countable usually singular] the degree to which you have learned from or been influenced by someone or something else
debt to
Braque acknowledged his debt to Impressionist painting.
4 . debt of gratitude/thanks the fact of being grateful to someone who has helped you:
I owe a debt of gratitude to my tutors.
• • •
COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ have debts
Fortunately, I have no debts.
▪ run up debts ( also amass debts formal ) (=borrow more and more money)
At that time he was drinking a lot and running up debts.
▪ pay off a debt (=pay the money back)
The first thing I'm going to do is pay off my debts.
▪ repay/settle a debt formal (=pay the money back)
He was hoping he would soon have enough money to settle his debts.
▪ clear your debts (=repay all of them)
It took him three years to clear his bank debts.
▪ service a debt (=pay the interest on a debt, but not pay it back)
By then, she was borrowing more money just to service her debts.
▪ write off/cancel a debt (=say officially that it does not have to be paid)
The bank finally agreed to write off the debt.
▪ be burdened with/saddled with debts (=have big debts)
Many poor countries are saddled with huge debts.
▪ reduce a debt
The programme aims to reduce the debt of the world's poorest countries.
■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + debt
▪ big/large
The debts got bigger and bigger.
▪ huge (=very big)
Young people often leave university with huge debts.
▪ unpaid/outstanding (=not yet paid)
The average outstanding debt on credit cards in Britain is now over £3,000.
▪ heavy debts (=big debts)
The company wanted to reduce its heavy debts.
▪ a bad debt (=one that is unlikely to be paid back)
Companies lose millions of pounds each year from having to write off bad debts.
▪ a bank debt (=one that you owe to a bank)
The company closed with bank debts of about £350 million.
▪ the national debt (=the total amount that is owed by the government of a country)
Their national debt is the third largest in the world.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ loan noun [countable] an amount of money that is borrowed, especially from a bank or company, which you agree to pay back by the end of a period of time:
We took out a loan to buy a new car.
|
He is paying back a $50,000 loan.
▪ mortgage noun [countable] a large amount of money that someone borrows from a bank or company to buy a house:
Nick told me the mortgage on his apartment is worth about $90,000.
|
Anyone taking out a mortgage should be aware that interest rates can go up at any time.
|
It took my parents nearly thirty years to pay off their mortgage.
▪ interest noun [uncountable] money that you pay for borrowing money, especially that you pay every year or every month at a fixed rate:
Credit companies charge huge amounts of interest.
|
What’s the interest on the loan?
▪ overdraft noun [countable] British English the amount of money that you owe to bank when you have spent more money than you had in your account:
I left university with no job and a big overdraft.
|
20% of the bank’s customers regularly use their overdraft facility.
|
You have to pay a fee for unauthorized overdrafts.
▪ debt noun [uncountable and countable] an amount of money that a person or organization owes:
The company now has debts of almost £2 million.
|
A lot of the money went towards paying his debts.
|
The family were $100,000 in debt (=they owed $100,000) .
▪ credit noun [uncountable] an arrangement with a shop or bank that allows you to buy something and pay for it later:
We bought the furniture on credit.
|
He had a credit limit of £7,000.