Wiktionary

duty

See also: Duty and dutý

English

edit

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit

From Middle English duete, from Middle English dewe + Middle English -te. Equivalent to due + -ty.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

duty (countable and uncountable, plural duties)

  1. (countable, uncountable) That which one is morally or legally obligated to do.
    Do your duty by me! -No, we don't have a duty to keep you abreast.
    • 1805, 21 October, Horatio Nelson
      England expects that every man will do his duty.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      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.
    • 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
      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.
  2. (uncountable) The state of being at work and responsible for or doing a particular task.
    I’m on duty from 6 pm to 6 am.
  3. (countable) A tax placed on imports or exports; a tariff.
    customs duty; excise duty
  4. (obsolete) One's due, something one is owed; a debt or fee.
  5. (obsolete) Respect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage.
  6. (engineering) 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.
  7. (euphemistic) The act of urination or defecation, especially for a dog.
    • 1927, Will Judy, “Housebreaking”, in Training the Dog, page 23:
      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.

Synonyms

edit

Antonyms

edit
  • duty-free (taxes)
  • (antonym(s) of “that which one is obligated to do”): right

Derived terms

edit
edit

Collocations

edit
Adjectives often used with "duty"
  • public, private, moral, legal, social, double, civic, contractual, political, judicial, etc.

Translations

edit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Further reading

edit

Lower Sorbian

edit

Pronunciation

edit

Participle

edit

duty

  1. past passive participle of duś

Declension

edit
Declension of duty
Masculine singular Feminine singular Neuter singular Dual Plural
Nominative duty duta dute dutej dute
Genitive dutego duteje dutego duteju dutych
Dative dutemu dutej dutemu dutyma dutym
Accusative duty
dutego (animate) 		dutu dute dutej
duteju (animate) 		dute
dutych (optional animate form)
Instrumental dutym duteju dutym dutyma dutymi
Locative dutem dutej dutem dutyma dutych
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=duty&oldid=84672577"