indebted

Definition

The polite way of saying you're financially obligated—usually with interest and judgment. The state of owing money, obligations, or favors, often with the implicit admission that you got yourself into this mess.

Example Usage

The startup felt indebted to its early investors even after going public.

Source: Merriam-Webster via Free Dictionary API

Related Terms

Advanced

covenant lite

Loans with few or no maintenance covenants that would normally protect lenders, essentially trusting borrowers to be responsible without supervision. It's the financial equivalent of lending your car to a teenager with no curfew.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Beginner

Unearned Revenue

Another term for deferred revenue—cash received for work not yet performed, sitting on the balance sheet as a liability. It's having money in hand while owing labor, the service industry's constant state.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Advanced

hedge accounting

An accounting treatment that matches the timing of gains and losses on hedging instruments with the hedged items, preventing volatility from making your financials look bipolar. IFRS 9 and ASC 815's way of acknowledging that risk management shouldn't tank your earnings.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Intermediate

grants

Free money from governments, foundations, or institutions that you don't have to pay back, making them the unicorn of funding options. The catch is you have to write a novel-length application, jump through bureaucratic hoops, and then use the money exactly as specified or risk audits and shame. It's basically a scholarship for organizations, except with ten times the paperwork and the constant anxiety that you're somehow violating section 3.14(b) of the compliance requirements.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Beginner

Gross Profit

Revenue minus COGS—the money left before operating expenses crush your dreams.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Beginner

Equity

The theoretical money trapped inside your walls that everyone talks about but you can never actually touch without borrowing against it. It's like Monopoly money that your house keeps score with.

💰 Finance / Accounting🏠 Real Estate

Translate This Term

See “indebted” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Intermediate

means testing

Restricting government benefits to individuals below certain income or asset levels. The bureaucratic process of determi...