duty
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: note: without the yod-coalescence
enpr: dyōōtē
ipa: /ˈdjuː.ti/
note: without the yod-coalescence
note: yod-coalescence
enpr: jōōtē
ipa: /ˈd͡ʒuː.ti/
note: yod-coalescence
ipa: /ˈd͡ʒʉː.ti/
note: yod-coalescence
note: yod-dropping
enpr: dōōtē
ipa: /ˈdu.ti/
note: yod-dropping
ipa: /ˈdu.ɾi/
note: yod-dropping
rhymes: -uːti
homophone: doody stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Forms: form: duties
form: dutie
Etymology: From Middle English duete, from Middle English dewe + Middle English -te. Equivalent to due + -ty.
Senses: examples: text: Do your duty by me! -No, we don't have a duty to keep you abreast.
text: 1805, 21 October, Horatio Nelson
England expects that every man will do his duty.
text: Captain Edward Carlisle[…]felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze,[…]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.
ref: 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
text: British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.
ref: 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
glosses: That which one is morally or legally obligated to do.
examples: text: I’m on duty from 6 pm to 6 am.
glosses: The state of being at work and responsible for or doing a particular task.
examples: text: customs duty; excise duty
glosses: A tax placed on imports or exports; a tariff.
examples: text: Take that which is thy duty, and goo thy waye.
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew:
glosses: One's due, something one is owed; a debt or fee.
examples: text: my duty to you
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
text: It [the letter] was written with a plain, unaffected, homely piety that I knew to be genuine, and ended with ‘my duty to my ever darling’—meaning myself.
ref: 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
glosses: Respect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: The efficiency of an engine in work done per unit of fuel; particularly, the number of pounds of water which a steam pumping engine can raise one foot by burning one bushel or hundredweight of coal.
examples: text: The basic idea in housebreaking is not to wait until the puppy sins and then punish him; it is to call nature to your aid and thus make it easy for him to do his duty.
ref: 1927, Will Judy, “Housebreaking”, in Training the Dog, page 23:
glosses: The act of urination or defecation, especially for a dog.
Synonyms: sense: that which one is obligated to do
word: obligation
Derived terms: word: active duty
word: call of duty
word: chimney-duty
word: civic duty
word: countervailing duty
word: customs duty
word: death duty
word: Delivered Duty Paid
word: Delivered Duty Unpaid
word: do one's duty
word: double duty
word: duteous
word: dutiable
word: dutied
word: dutiful
word: dutiless
word: duty ace
word: dutybound
word: duty-bound
word: duty bound
word: duty calls
word: duty card
word: duty cycle
word: duty-free
word: dutyless
word: dutyman
word: duty man
word: duty-man
word: duty manager
word: duty of care
word: duty officer
word: duty of support
word: duty roster
word: duty solicitor
word: duty to retreat
word: estate duty
word: excise duty
word: export duty
word: extra-duty
word: fatigue duty
word: feu-duty
word: feu duty
word: fiduciary duty
word: filial duty
word: fuel duty
word: heavy-duty
word: home duty
word: import duty
word: in the line of duty
word: jury duty
word: legal duty
word: light-duty
word: line of duty
word: moral duty
word: neglect duty
word: nonduty
word: off-duty
word: off duty
word: on-duty
word: on duty
word: point duty
word: regular-duty
word: report for duty
word: Revlon duty
word: scab duty
word: sea duty
word: sea-duty
word: shore duty
word: stamp duty
word: static separation of duty
word: succession duty
word: superduty
word: tonnage duty
word: tour of duty
word: yard duty
Related terms: due