debt of honor

plural debts of honor · alternative debt of honour

1. USset phraseAn obligation, especially a gambling debt based on a verbal promise, which is not legally enforceable but which is considered to be secured by the debtor's moral integrity.

   "I owe this money to Sheridan; it is a debt of honor; if an accident should happen to me, he has nothing to show."

   1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, chapter 4, in Essays: Second Series

   5 more examples

   [T]his whole sum, and its amount doubled, was lost at the gaming-table. In his desire to repair his first losses, my father risked double stakes, and thus incurred a debt of honour he was wholly unable to pay.

   1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC

   They had commenced playing cards for amusement—at least, that was Congreve's pretext—but it had led to playing for a stake. . . . "This is a debt of honor. Gentlemen always pay their debts of honor. It takes precedence of all other claims."

   c. 1890, Horatio Alger, chapter 30, in The Tin Box

   Lady Frederick: Is it a gambling debt? Gerald: Yes. Lady Frederick [ironically]: What they call a debt of honour? Gerald: I must pay it the day after to-morrow without fail.

   1912, William Somerset Maugham, Lady Frederick, act I

   [H]e is opposed to the suggestion that Brazil declare a moratorium on its international debts repayments. Said he: "We must pay what we owe. It is a debt of honor for the nation."

   2001 June 24, Anastasia Toufexis, “Brazil Victory for the "Great Conciliator"”, in Time, retrieved 27 Aug 2014

   Brought up in Quebec, Glassco latterly was able to repay to French-speaking Canada a debt of honour by creating in 1999 in Montreal a company of young actors drawn from both the English- and French-speaking communities.

   2004 November 27, “Obituaries: Bill Glassco, champion of new writers in the Canadian theatre”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 27 Aug 2014