beholden

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The Word of the Day for January 30 is:=20

beholden   \bih-HOHL-dun\   adjective
          : being under obligation for a favor or gift : indebted

Example sentence:
          Tom understood that Mrs. Milton disliked being beholden to any=
one, so he usually let her give him a dollar or two when he mowed her la=
wn or shoveled her driveway.

Did you know?
          Have you ever found yourself under obligation to someone else =
for a gift or favor? It's a common experience, and, not surprisingly, ma=
ny of the words describing this condition have been part of the English =
language for centuries. "Beholden" was first recorded in writing in the =
14th century, in the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." "Indebted,"=
 which entered English through Anglo-French, is even older, first appear=
ing in the 13th century. English speakers in the 14th century would also=
 have had another synonym of "beholden" to choose from, a now-obsolete s=
ense of "bounden," which today means "made obligatory" or "binding."=20





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