Noun > Debt
1 : (count) : an amount of money that you owe to a person, bank, company, etc.
He is trying to pay off gambling debts.
The company has run up huge debts.
Their debts are piling up.
She’s finally paid off her mortgage debt. (=the money that she owed the bank to pay for her house)
the nation’s growing foreign debt (=the amount of money that a country owes other countries)
Most of his debts are consumer debts. (=most of his debts are from buying things at stores)
2 : (noncount) : the state of owing money to someone or something
He is drowning in a sea of debt. (=he owes a very large amount of money)
a mountain of debt
He’s been working three jobs in an attempt to get out of debt.
The company was in debt but is now turning a profit.
I am deep/heavily in debt.
I’m thousands of dollars in debt.
She went into debt to pay for college.
I’m worried that we will fall into debt.
banks with millions of dollars of bad debt (=banks that have loaned millions of dollars that will not be repaid)
a debt-ridden country (=a country with more debt than it can pay)
3 : (count) : the fact that you have been influenced or helped by someone or something — usually singular
The photographer has acknowledged a/his debt to Andy Warhol. (=the photographer has said that his work was influenced by the photographs made by Andy Warhol)