duty

plural duties · alternative obsolete dutie

1. countableuncountableThat 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.

   5 more examples

   1805, 21 October, Horatio Nelson England expects that every man will do his duty.

   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.

   1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Your Excellency, I trust you will not find it necessary to use that word again. Were I not completely aware of my duty to my family and to my country, I would not have come back tonight…or indeed ever again!

   1953, Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton, Roman Holiday, spoken by Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn)

   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.

   1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax

   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.

   2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

   Synonyms: obligation

2. uncountableThe state of being at work and responsible for or doing a particular task.

   I’m on duty from 6 pm to 6 am.

3. countableAn excise tax; especially, one on imports or exports.

   customs duty

   Synonyms: excise duty

4. countableobsoleteuncountableOne's due, something one is owed; a debt or fee.

   Take that which is thy duty, and goo thy waye.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew

5. countableobsoleteuncountableRespect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage.

   my duty to you

   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]

   1 more example

   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.

   1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC

6. countableuncountableengineeringThe 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. countableeuphemisticuncountableThe act of urination or defecation, especially for a dog.

   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.

   1927, Will Judy, “Housebreaking”, in Training the Dog, page 23

plural Dutys

1. A surname.