owe

Verb

Verb Forms: owed, owing, owes

• To be under an obligation to pay or repay something.
• be obliged to pay or repay
• be indebted to, in an abstract or intellectual sense
  • "This new theory owes much to Einstein's Relativity Theory"
• be in debt
  • "She owes me $200"
  • "I still owe for the car"
  • "The thesis owes much to his adviser"
• To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.
• To have debt; to be in debt.
• To have as a cause; used with to.

Examples

• I owe Kevin five bucks which he lent to me last week.
• I OWE you a rematch after that disastrous Scrabble game.
• The record owes its success to the outstanding guitar solos.
• This time I'll cover for you, but now you owe me a favour.
• We owe it to our children to make our nation a better place to live in the future.