debt limit
18
3.9
- noun
- /dɛt ˈlɪmɪt/
- Formal
:
límite de deuda
- The federal debt limit restricts how much money the government can borrow to fund its activities.
- raise the debt limit
- debt limit increase
- federal debt limit
President Obama released a warning that if the debt limit wasn't raised, Social Security checks might not be sent out.
- President Obama released a warning that if the debt limit wasn't raised, Social Security checks might not be sent out.
- Some of them have already been shot down in terms of how to potentially solve the disaster of approaching the debt limit.
- And I was a no pretty hard no going into that, into that vote just because I'm like, we just we can't keep, we can't keep raising the debt limit, right.
Examples
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Failure to raise the debt limit would plunge us back into that recession, or worse.
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Boehner has said previously that any agreement should include an increase in the national debt limit, now $16.4 trillion.
Blog text (1) -
The figure below shows how close the federal debt has come to the debt limit as of November 13, 2012.
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The bank is limited in the amount of money it can loan by the state's debt limit.
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If the government can raise the debt limit, then it would be legal for the Treasury to issue new debt.
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Now, to be clear, the debt limit does not authorise new government spending.
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We are about to reach our debt limit again and witness another debt-authorization fight.
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It'll be the 7th time the debt limit has been raised during this administration.
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The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.
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Also, the government debt has now reached $16 trillion, so very near the $16.4 trillion debt limit.
Blog text (11)
Synonyms
432
1.0
The greatest amount or number allowed
110
3.7
An upper limit on the amount or number allowed
42
5.3
The maximum amount of money a government can borrow by law
1
6.6
An official limit on how much money a government can borrow
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'debt' (money owed) combined with 'limit' (maximum allowed) yields 'the maximum amount of debt allowed'. This noun-noun combination follows a common, transparent compounding pattern (and is cross-linguistically familiar), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE's meaning despite the specific legal/governmental usage.
Etymology
The term debt limit comes from a simple image of a legal cap: debt is what you owe and limit is the line you cannot pass. So when a government reaches the debt limit, it cannot legally 'borrow' more money.