national debtn.
/ˌnaʃn̩(ə)l ˈdɛt/, /ˌnaʃən(ə)l ˈdɛt/, U.S. /ˌnæʃən(ə)l ˈdɛt/, /ˌnæʃn(ə)l ˈdɛt/ The total amount of money which a country's government owes to domestic and foreign lenders (through various financial instruments, such as Treasury bills, bonds, and other securities).
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1721 A. Hutcheson (title) Collection of treatises, relating to the National Debts and Funds.
1727 W. Pulteney (title) A state of the national debt as it stood December the 24th, 1716.
1752 D. Hume Public Credit in Ess. (1875) I. 364 National debts cause a mighty confluence of people and riches to the capital.
1790 R. Beatson Naval & Mil. Mem. I. 391 Increasing the national debt to near eighty millions Sterling.
1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 100 The contracting of the National Debt cannot be said to have been begun before the Revolution of 1688.
1878 E. Thompson Hist. Eng. xxxix. 275 The South Sea Company..for the purpose of reducing the National Debt, engaged..to buy up certain annuities.
1903 G. Ade People you Know 110 He wanted to parlee a $2 Silver Certificate and bring home enough to pay the National Debt.
1952 Polit. Sci. Q. 67 268 The United States emerged from World War I with..a manifold increase of the national debt.
1992 B. Coote Trade Trap xi. 143 Chile has traded shares in the national fishing industry to private companies, in return for reductions in the national debt.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
> as lemmas
National Debt
d. National Debt: a debt owing by a sovereign state to private individuals who have advanced money to it for the public needs; esp. that main part of the public debt, which has been converted into a fund or stock of which the government no longer seeks to pay off the principal, but to provide the annual interest; hence called funded debt, as opposed to the floating debt, which includes the ever-varying amounts due by the government and repayable on demand or by a certain time.
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society > trade and finance > management of money > insolvency > indebtedness > [noun] > a debt > national or public debt
National Debt1653
dead weight1823
dead-weight debt1905
1653 S. Chidley (title) Remonstrance concerning the Public Faith, Soldier's Arrears, and other Public Debts.
1812 G. Chalmers Hist. View Domest. Econ. Great Brit. & Ireland (New ed.) 210 The most efficient measure..was to fund..the floating debts, of the victualling, and of the ordnance departments.
1860 C. Knight Pop. Hist. Eng. VI. iii. 40 There was a floating debt of about ten millions.
1889 Whitaker's Almanack 493 The French National Debt is the largest in the world..Public debt, funded £957,000,000; Public debt, floating, annuities, etc., capitalized £728,372,372.
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n.1721as lemmas