due

  • adjective 1 owing or payable. 2 expected at or planned for a certain time. 3 (often due to) merited; fitting. 4 at a point where something is owed or merited: he was due for a rise. 5 proper; appropriate: due process of law.

  • noun 1 (one’s due/dues) a person’s right. 2 (dues) fees.

  • adverb (with reference to a point of the compass) directly.

  — PHRASES due to 1 caused by. 2 because of. give someone their due be fair to someone. in due course at the appropriate time. pay one’s dues fulfil one’s obligations.

  — USAGE Due to in the sense ‘because of’ has been condemned as incorrect on the grounds that due is an adjective and should not be used in a prepositional phrase. However, this use is now common and is regarded as part of standard English.

  — ORIGIN Old French deu ‘owed’, from Latin debere ‘owe’.

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