Due
adj, adv, name, noun ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 Deserved acknowledgment.
"Give him his due – he is a good actor."
- 2 that which is deserved or owed wordnet
- 3 A membership fee. in-plural
- 4 a payment that is due (e.g., as the price of membership) wordnet
- 5 That which is owed; debt; that which belongs or may be claimed as a right; whatever custom, law, or morality requires to be done, duty.
"He will give the devil his due."
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- 6 Right; just title or claim.
"The key of this infernal pit by due […] I keep."
- 1 Owed or owing.
"He is due four weeks of back pay."
- 2 Appropriate.
"With all due respect, you're wrong about that."
- 3 Scheduled; expected.
"Rain is due this afternoon."
- 4 Having reached the expected, scheduled, or natural time.
"The baby is just about due."
- 5 Owing; ascribable, as to a cause.
"The dangerously low water table is due to rapidly growing pumping."
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- 6 On a direct bearing, especially for the four points of the compass.
"The town is 5 miles due North of the bridge."
- 1 owed and payable immediately or on demand wordnet
- 2 suitable to or expected in the circumstances wordnet
- 3 capable of being assigned or credited to wordnet
- 4 scheduled to arrive wordnet
- 1 Directly; exactly.
"The river runs due north for about a mile."
- 1 directly or exactly; straight wordnet
- 1 A surname.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Your poor memory is due to poor listening habits."
Etymology
From Middle English dewe, dew, due, from Old French deü (“due”), past participle of devoir (“to owe”), from Latin dēbēre (“to owe”), from dē- (“from”) + habeō (“to have”).
Related phrases
More for "due"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.