debit (debit)

[L. debitum, what is owed, a debt, neut. pp. of debere, owe: see debt. ] 1. That which is entered in an account as a debt; a recorded item of debt: as, the debits exceed the credits. [The English, in France, may be permitted] to be their brokers and factors, and to be employed in casting up their debits and credits. Burke , A Regicide Peace, iv. 2. That part of another's account in which one enters any article of goods furnished or money paid to or on account of that other: as, place that to my debit. - Debit side, the left-hand page of the ledger, to which are carried all the articles supplied or moneys paid in the course of an account, or that are charged to that account. debit (deb'it), v. t. [ We may consider the provisions of heaven as an universal bank, wherein accounts are regularly kept, and every man debited or credited for the last farthing he takes out or brings in. A. Tucker, Light of Nature, II. xxviii. A country must not alone be credited with her emigrants, who furnish a real and active proof of the vitality of her population; she must likewise be debited with the foreigners who live within her borders. Nineteenth Century , XX. 554. 2. To enter on the debtor side of a book: as, to debit the sum or amount of goods sold. debitor (deb'i-tor), n. [L., a debtor: see debtor.] A debtor. - Debitor and creditor, an account-keeper; an account-book. O, the charity of a penny cord! it sums up you sands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor but it; of what's past, is, and to come, the discharge. Shak ., Cymbeline, v. 4. deb i tum in i zati on (dē-bi-tū"mi-ni-zā'shọn), n. [ [= F.