KJV Dictionary Definition: owe

owe

OWE, v.t. o. Gr., Eng. own.

1. To be indebted; to be obliged or bound to pay. The merchants owe a large sum to foreigners.

A son owes help and honor to his father.

One was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.

Matt. 18.

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another. Rom. 13.

2. To be obliged to ascribe to; to be obliged for; as, that he may owe to me all his deliverance.

3. To possess; to have; to be the owner of. This is the original sense, but now obsolete. In place of it, we use own, from the participle. See Own.

Thou dost here usurp the name thou owest not.

4. To be due or owing.

O deem thy fall not ow'd to man's decree.

This passive form is not now used.

OWE, v.i. To be bound or obliged.

owing

OWING, ppr. This is used in a passive form, contrary to analogy, for owen or owed. But the use is inveterately established.

1. Due; that moral obligation requires to be paid; as the money owing to a laborer for services, or to another country for goods.

2. Consequential; ascribable to, as the cause. Misfortunes are often owing to vices or miscalculations.

3. Imputable to as an agent. His recovery from sickness is owing less to his physician, than to the strength of his constitution.