Owe vs Cost - What's the difference?
owe | cost |
To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.
*1854 , Dickens, Hard Times , Chapter 7:
*:He inherited a fair fortune from his uncle, but owed it all before he came into it, and spent it twice over immediately afterwards.
To have debt, to be in debt.
Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
To incur a charge; to require payment of a price.
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:
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*:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of.
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*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:though it cost me ten nights' watchings
(label) To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
*:to do him wanton rites, which cost them woe
To calculate or estimate a price.
:
(obsolete) A rib; a side.
* Ben Jonson
(heraldry) A cottise.
As verbs the difference between owe and cost
is that owe is to be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone while cost is to incur a charge; to require payment of a price.As a noun cost is
manner; way; means; available course; contrivance or cost can be amount of money, time, etc that is required or used or cost can be (obsolete) a rib; a side.owe
English
Verb
(ow)Usage notes
* The original past tense form was ought, which during Middle English began to be used with indefinite signification and has become a distinct verb. The original past participle has become the adjective own.Anagrams
*cost
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . Cognate with (etyl) (m), (etyl) dialectal . Related to (l).Noun
(en noun)- at all costs (= "by all means")
Derived terms
* (l) * (l)Etymology 2
From (etyl) (m), (m), from , see below.Noun
(wikipedia cost) (en noun)Obama goes troll-hunting, passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}
Derived terms
{{der3, appraisal cost , at cost , carbon cost , cost and freight , cost avoidance , cost-benefit , cost benefit analysis , cost center , cost control , cost cutting , cost-effective , cost-efficient , cost function , costless , costly , cost objective , cost of business, cost of doing business, cost of sales , cost of living , cost of money , cost overrun , cost per avalable seat mile , cost price , cost-push , design to cost , flotation cost , landed cost , low-cost , marginal cost , opportunity cost , private cost , sunk cost , unexpired cost , unit cost , variable cost}}Etymology 3
From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), .Verb
See Usage notes.Usage notes
The past tense and past participle is cost'' in the sense of "this computer cost''' me £600", but ''costed'' in the sense of 'calculated', "the project was ' costed at $1 million."Derived terms
* cost an arm and a leg * cost a pretty penny * cost the earth * how much does it costEtymology 4
Noun
(en noun)- betwixt the costs of a ship