beholden to
idiom
formal
: owing a favor or gift to (someone) : having obligations to (someone)
politicians who are beholden to special interest groups
She works for herself, and so is beholden to no one.
Examples of beholden to in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
With concerns that the effort to dismiss his case was an abuse of power that means the mayor is beholden to the Trump administration, several prosecutors as well as four senior officials in Adams’ administration resigned from their posts in recent weeks.
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Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News, 1 Mar. 2025
But Winning Time was ultimately a show that could only be made by people interested in this world but not beholden to it.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 27 Feb. 2025
That condition — and Ms. Sassoon’s accusations more generally — have caused an uproar among critics of the mayor, who argue that Mr. Adams is now beholden to Mr. Trump and cannot serve the city.
—Jonah E. Bromwich, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
Ultimately, this post-neoliberal ideology and its adherents did not take tradeoffs seriously enough, laboring under an illusion that previous policymakers were too beholden to economic orthodoxy to make real progress for people.
—Jason Furman, Foreign Affairs, 10 Feb. 2025
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Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News, 1 Mar. 2025
But Winning Time was ultimately a show that could only be made by people interested in this world but not beholden to it.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 27 Feb. 2025
That condition — and Ms. Sassoon’s accusations more generally — have caused an uproar among critics of the mayor, who argue that Mr. Adams is now beholden to Mr. Trump and cannot serve the city.
—Jonah E. Bromwich, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
Ultimately, this post-neoliberal ideology and its adherents did not take tradeoffs seriously enough, laboring under an illusion that previous policymakers were too beholden to economic orthodoxy to make real progress for people.
—Jason Furman, Foreign Affairs, 10 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for beholden to
Cite this Entry
“Beholden to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beholden%20to. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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