Adjacent Words

Duty definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DUTY, n.
1. That which a person owes to another; that which a person is bound, by any natural, moral or legal obligation, to pay, do or perform. Obedience to princes, magistrates and the laws is the duty of every citizen and subject; obedience, respect and kindness to parents are duties of children; fidelity to friends is a duty; reverence, obedience and prayer to God are indispensable duties; the government and religious instruction of children are duties of parents which they cannot neglect without guilt.
2. Forbearance of that which is forbid by morality, law, justice or propriety. It is our duty to refrain from lewdness, intemperance, profaneness and injustice.
3. Obedience; submission.
4. Act of reverence or respect.
They both did duty to their lady.
5. The business of a soldier or marine on guard; as, the company is on duty. It is applied also to other services or labor.
6. The business of war; military service; as, the regiment did duty in Flanders.
7. Tax, toll, impost, or customs; excise; any sum of money required by government to be paid on the importation, exportation, or consumption of goods. An impost on land or other real estate, and on the stock of farmers, is not called a duty, but a direct tax.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the social force that binds you to the courses of action demanded by that force; "we must instill a sense of duty in our children"; "every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty"- John D.Rockefeller Jr [syn: duty, responsibility, obligation]
2: work that you are obliged to perform for moral or legal reasons; "the duties of the job"
3: a government tax on imports or exports; "they signed a treaty to lower duties on trade between their countries" [syn: duty, tariff]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun (plural duties) Etymology: Middle English duete, from Anglo-French deueté, dueté, from deu due Date: 13th century 1. conduct due to parents and superiors ; respect 2. a. obligatory tasks, conduct, service, or functions that arise from one's position (as in life or in a group) b. (1) assigned service or business (2) active military service (3) a period of being on duty 3. a. a moral or legal obligation b. the force of moral obligation 4. tax; especially a tax on imports 5. a. work 1a b. (1) the service required (as of an electric machine) under specified conditions (2) functional application ; use <got double duty out of the trip> (3) use as a substitute <making the word do duty for the thing — Edward Sapir> Synonyms: see function, task II. adjective Date: 1806 1. done as a duty 2. being on duty ; assigned to specified tasks or functions <the duty officer>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a a moral or legal obligation; a responsibility (his duty to report it). b the binding force of what is right (strong sense of duty). c what is required of one (do one's duty). 2 payment to the public revenue, esp.: a that levied on the import, export, manufacture, or sale of goods (customs duty). b that levied on the transfer of property, licences, the legal recognition of documents, etc. (death duty; probate duty). 3 a job or function (his duties as caretaker). 4 the behaviour due to a superior; deference, respect. 5 the measure of an engine's effectiveness in units of work done per unit of fuel. 6 Eccl. the performance of church services. Phrases and idioms: do duty for serve as or pass for (something else). duty-bound obliged by duty. duty-free (of goods) on which duty is not leviable. duty-free shop a shop at an airport etc. at which duty-free goods can be bought. duty-officer the officer currently on duty. duty-paid (of goods) on which duty has been paid. duty visit a visit paid from obligation, not from pleasure. on (or off) duty engaged (or not engaged) in one's work. Etymology: AF deweté, dueté (as DUE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Duty Du"ty, n.; pl. Duties. [From Due.] 1. That which is due; payment. [Obs. as signifying a material thing.] When thou receivest money for thy labor or ware, thou receivest thy duty. --Tyndale.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(duties) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Duty is work that you have to do for your job. Staff must report for duty at their normal place of work... My duty is to look after the animals. N-UNCOUNT 2. Your duties are tasks which you have to do because they are part of your job. I carried out my duties conscientiously... N-PLURAL 3. If you say that something is your duty, you believe that you ought to do it because it is your responsibility. I consider it my duty to write to you and thank you. N-SING: oft with poss 4. Duties are taxes which you pay to the government on goods that you buy. Import duties still average 30%. ...customs duties... N-VAR 5. If someone such as a policeman or a nurse is off duty, they are not working. If someone is on duty, they are working. I'm off duty... Extra staff had been put on duty. PHRASE: PHR after v, v-link PHR

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

du'-ti (dabhar; opheilo):

The word duty occurs only three times in the Old Testament and twice in the New Testament. In the Old Testament it is the translation of dabhar, which, meaning originally "speech," or "word," came to denote any particular "matter" that had to be attended to. In the two places where it is rendered "duty" (2Ch 8:14; Ezr 3:4) the reference is to the performance of the Temple services--praise and sacrifice--and it is probably from these passages that the phrase "taking duty" in church services is derived. In other passages we have different words employed to denote the priests' dues: the King James Version Le 10:13,14, hok ("statutory portion"); De 18:3, mishpat ("judgment"). In Pr 3:27, we have a reference to duty in the moral sense, "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due," ba`-al (i.e. as in the King James Version margin, "from the owners thereof"). In Ex 21:10 we have the "duty of marriage" (`onah), that which was due to the wife.

In the New Testament "duty" is expressed by opheilo, "to owe," "to be due." In Lu 17:10, we have "Say, ... we have done that which it was our duty to do," and in Ro 15:27 the King James Version, it is said of the Gentiles with reference to the Jewish Christians, "Their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things," the American Standard Revised Version "they owe it." In Mt 18:34 we have "till he should pay all that was due" (opheilo, "owing"), and in 1Co 7:3 the King James Version, "Render unto the wife due opheile benevolence," the American Standard Revised Version "her due." See also ETHICS.

W. L. Walker

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. What one ought to do, what one is bound or under obligation to do. 2. Service, business, function, office. 3. Tax, impost, toll, custom, excise.

Moby Thesaurus

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