- due
- due adj Due, rightful, condign are comparable when they mean being in accordance with what is just and appro-priate.Due, which basically means owed or owing as a debt, carries over in the sense here considered a strong implication that the thing so described is grounded upon an obligation, duty, or debt which should not or cannot be ignored; thus, one who takes due precautions uses the care that is required by his obligation to look out for his own or for others' safety or well-being; one who has a due sense of another person's rights accords to that person all that belongs to him by natural or moral right; one who has due respect for the law observes the individual laws as the duty of a responsible citizen. Often the term implies little more than an accordance with what is right, reasonable, or necessary{
the due relation of one thing with another— Galsworthy
}{your due and proper portion— Meredith
}{many noncommissioned officers have a firm belief that without a due admixture of curses, an order is inaudible to a private— Montague
}Rightful carries a much stronger and more consistent implication than due of a ground in right and justice, and usually suggests a moral or legal claim{the rightful heir to the estate
}{possess the rightful authority
}{looked askance, jealous of an encroacher on his rightful domain— Hawthorne
}{the disloyal subject who had fought against his rightful sovereign— Macaulay
}Condign applies to something that is distinctly deserved or merited and usually something that neither exceeds nor falls below one's deserts or merits; the term is used chiefly of punishment, often with the implication of severity{he had been brought to condign punishment as a traitor— Macaulay
}{the particular troubles which involved Messrs. Buecheler and Vahlen in such condign castigation— Housman
}{condign punishments set up for violations of the rules of control— Baruch
}Analogous words: appropriate, meet, suitable, *fit, fitting, proper: right, *good: just, *fair, equitabledue n Due, desert, merit are comparable when they mean what is justly owed to a person (sometimes a thing), especially as a recompense or compensation.Due usually implies a legal or moral right on the part of the person or thing that makes the claim or is in a position to make the claim and suggests a determination of what is owed by strict justice{more is thy due than more than all can pay— Shak.
}{carve to all but just enough, let them neither starve nor stuff, and that you may have your due, let your neighbor carve for you— Swift
}{giving each man his due . . . impartial as the rain from Heaven's face— Lindsay
}Desert (often in plural deserts) suggests not a legal right but a moral right based upon what one actually deserves, whether it be a reward or a penalty{"My lord, I will use them according to their desert." "God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?"— Shak.
}{you have deprived the best years of his life of that independence which was no less his due than his desert— Austen
}{any Federal officer, regardless of his deserts, has much prestige— Heiser
}Merit is a somewhat complex term, often shifting in its major implication but (see also EXCELLENCE) com-monly implying a deserving either of reward or punishment on the ground of what has been accomplished or of commendation, esteem, or acceptance on the ground of intrinsic and usually excellent qualities{no tribute can be paid to them which exceeds their merit— John Marshall
}{deal with every case on its merits
}{as a pilgrim to the Holy Places I acquire merit— Kipling
}Analogous words: compensation, recompensing or recompense, repayment, satisfaction, payment (see corresponding verbs at PAY): retribution, Retaliation, reprisal, vengeance, revenge: reward, meed, guerdon (see PREMIUM)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
