debt of honor

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English

Alternative forms

Noun

debt of honor (plural debts of honor)

  1. (US, set phrase) An obligation, especially a gambling debt based on a verbal promise, which is not legally enforceable but which is considered to be secured by the debtor's moral integrity.
    • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC:
      [T]his whole sum, and its amount doubled, was lost at the gaming-table. In his desire to repair his first losses, my father risked double stakes, and thus incurred a debt of honour he was wholly unable to pay.
    • 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, chapter 4, in Essays: Second Series:
      "I owe this money to Sheridan; it is a debt of honor; if an accident should happen to me, he has nothing to show."
    • c. 1890, Horatio Alger, chapter 30, in The Tin Box:
      They had commenced playing cards for amusement—at least, that was Congreve's pretext—but it had led to playing for a stake. . . .
      "This is a debt of honor. Gentlemen always pay their debts of honor. It takes precedence of all other claims."
    • 1912, William Somerset Maugham, Lady Frederick, act I:
      Lady Frederick: Is it a gambling debt?
      Gerald: Yes.
      Lady Frederick [ironically]: What they call a debt of honour?
      Gerald: I must pay it the day after to-morrow without fail.
    • 2001 June 24, Anastasia Toufexis, “Brazil Victory for the "Great Conciliator"”, in Time, retrieved 27 August 2014:
      [H]e is opposed to the suggestion that Brazil declare a moratorium on its international debts repayments. Said he: "We must pay what we owe. It is a debt of honor for the nation."
    • 2004 November 27, “Obituaries: Bill Glassco, champion of new writers in the Canadian theatre”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 27 August 2014:
      Brought up in Quebec, Glassco latterly was able to repay to French-speaking Canada a debt of honour by creating in 1999 in Montreal a company of young actors drawn from both the English- and French-speaking communities.
    • 2023 October 10, Senay Boztas, “Frans Timmermans urges European left to unite against right’s climate backlash”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:
      The country is paying a €22bn debt of honour to the region of Groningen, where decades of extracting gas worth billions damaged about 85,000 buildings.

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