Debt

[Lat. debitum; L. Fr. det, dett, dette.] A sum of money due by certain and express agreement; as by bond for a determinate sum, a bill or note, a special bargain, or a rent reserved on a lease, where the amount is fixed and specific, and does not depend upon any subsequent valuation to settle it.

3 Bl. Com. 164.

Debt is otherwise described by Sir William Blackstone as a species of contract, whereby a chose in action, or right to a certain sum of money is mutually acquired and lost.

2 Bl. Com. 464. See Smith's Merc. Law, 319.

This, however, as Mr. Stephen observes, conveys no accurate idea of the meaning of the term; a debt not being a contract, but the result of a contract.

2 Steph. Com. 187, note. Id. 186.

The word "debt" is of large import, including not only debts of record, or judgments, and debts by specialty, but also obligations arising under simple contract, to a very wide extent; and in its popular sense includes all that is due to a man under any form of obligation or promise.

Hubbard, J. 3 Metcalf's R. 522, 526.