0 past simple and past participle of owe --
1 to need to pay or give something to someone because they have lent money to you, or in exchange for something they have done for you: --
2 to have success, happiness, a job, etc. only because of what someone has given you or done for you or because of your own efforts: --
While he owed his stepmother respect, because of her parental position, he was not her blood relation.
Yet his ascendancy owed more to the internal politics of the new ruling party than to his religious identity.
The area that owed allegiance to a king was sub-divided into districts headed by headmen.
Kings were owed allegiance not because of any right, but in terms of their capacity to protect.
Some of those duties are owed to fellow citizens - to those who are poor, disabled, victims of prejudice and injustice, for example.
This conservative religious tone of the parish must have owed a good deal to its towering neighbour.
And the duty of non-maleficence seems to be owed by all moral agents to all sentient beings just in virtue of their having interests.
These newly experienced living standards owed much to the regime, and it came as no surprise that the middle classes were loyal to the regime.
