- (used to express duty or moral obligation): Every citizen ought to help.
- (used to express justice, moral rightness, or the like): He ought to be punished. You ought to be ashamed.
- (used to express propriety, appropriateness, etc.): You ought to be home early. We ought to bring her some flowers.
- (used to express probability or natural consequence): That ought to be our train now.
- duty or obligation.
- to indicate duty or obligation
- to express prudent expediency
- (usually with reference to future time) to express probability or expectation
- to express a desire or wish on the part of the speaker
- a variant spelling of aught 1
- a less common word for nought (def. 1)
