Dictionary Definition
duty
Noun
1 work that you are obliged to perform for moral
or legal reasons; "the duties of the job"
2 the social force that binds you to your
obligations and 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: responsibility, obligation]
3 a government tax on imports or exports; "they
signed a treaty to lower duties on trade between their countries"
[syn: tariff]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /ˈdjuːti/
-
- Rhymes: -uːti
Noun
- That which one is morally or legally obligated to do.
- England expects that every man will do his duty. (Nelson)
- She felt it was her bounten duty to tell the police about the incident.
- England expects that every man will do his duty. (Nelson)
- A period of time spent
at work or doing a particular task.
- I’m on duty from 6 pm to 6 am.
- describing a workload as to its idle, working and de-energized periods.
- A tax placed on imports or exports; a tariff.
Derived terms
Antonyms
- duty-free (taxes)
Translations
that which one is morally or legally obligated
to do
- Arabic: واجب
- Catalan: obligació
- Chinese:
- Czech: povinnost
- Dutch: plicht
- Esperanto: devo
- Finnish: velvollisuus
- French: devoir
- German: Pflicht
- Italian: dovere
- Japanese: 義務(ぎむ, gimu)
- Malayalam: കടമ
- Polish: obowiązek
- Portuguese: dever, obrigação
- Russian: долг, обязанность
- Slovene: dolžnost
- Spanish: deber, obligación
- Swahili: zamu
period of time
tax; tariff
Extensive Definition
this duty in
ethics Duty (from "due," that which is owing, O. Fr. deu, did,
past participle of devoir; Lat. debere, debitum; cf. "debt") is a term that conveys a
sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral
commitment is the sort that results in action, and it is not a
matter of passive feeling or mere recognition. When someone
recognizes a duty, that person commits himself/herself to the cause
involved without considering the self-interested courses of actions
that may have been relevant previously. This is not to suggest that
living a life of duty precludes one from the best sort of life, but
duty does involve some sacrifice of immediate self-interest.
Cicero is an early
philosopher who acknowledged this possibility. He discusses duty in
his work “On Duty." He suggests that duties can come from four
different sources:
- It is a result of being human
- It is a result of one's particular place in life (your family, your country, your job)
- It is a result of one's personality
- One's own moral expectations for yourself can generate duties
But it seems that one can be compelled to live up
to a duty. That is not always the case. In the case of mandatory
child support, a parent is being put in such a position.
From the root idea of obligation to serve or give
something in return, involved in the conception of duty, have
sprung various derivative uses of the word; thus it is used of the
services performed by a minister
of a church, by a
soldier, or by any
employee or
servant.
A special application is to a tax, a payment due to the revenue of
a state, levied by
force
of law. Properly a "duty" differs from a "tax" in being levied
on specific commodities, transactions, estates, &c., and not on
individuals; thus it is right to talk of import-duties,
excise-duties, death or succession-duties and etc., but of income tax as
being levied on a person in proportion to his income.
Many schools of thought have debated the idea of
duty. While many assert mankind's duty on their own terms, some
philosophers have absolutely rejected a sense of duty.
References
See also
duty in Czech: Povinnost
duty in Danish: Pligt
duty in German: Pflicht
duty in French: Devoir
duty in Japanese: 義務
duty in Norwegian: Plikt
duty in Russian: Долг (философия)
duty in Swedish: Plikt
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Mass,
VAT, accountability, active
service, ad valorem duty, admiration, adoration, alcohol tax,
allegiance, amenability, amusement tax,
answerability,
apotheosis, appreciation, approbation, approval, assessment, assessment on
default, assignment,
awe, bedtime prayer,
bit, blackmail, breathless
adoration, burden,
business, busywork, call, call for, calling, camp meeting, capacity, capital gains tax,
capitation,
capitation tax, cargo,
ceremonial, ceremony, cess, character, chare, charge, chore, church, church service, claim, commission, commitment, committal, compline, conscience money,
consideration,
contribution,
corporation tax, courtesy, customs, customs duty, deadweight, death duty, death
tax, deference,
deification,
demand, demand for,
devoir, devotions, direct tax, divine
service, doomage,
draft, drain, end use, errand, estate duty, estate tax,
esteem, estimation, evening
devotions, evensong,
exaction, exaggerated
respect, excess profits tax, excise, excise tax, exercise, exercises, export tax,
extortion,
extortionate demand, faithfulness, favor, fealty, federal tax, fidelity, fish to fry, form, form of worship, formality, formula, formulary, freight, function, gabelle, gift tax, goal, graduated taxation, great
respect, head tax, heavy demand, hero worship, high regard, holy
rite, homage, homework, honor, idolatry, idolization, immediate
purpose, import tax, imposition, impost, income tax, indent, indirect tax, inheritance
tax, insistent demand, institution, internal
revenue tax, job, job of
work, joint return, labor,
land tax, lauds, levy, liability, liquor tax,
liturgy, load, local tax, loyalty, luxury tax, make-work,
mark, matins, matters in hand, meeting, millstone, mission, mode of worship,
morning devotions, must,
mystery, national
service, need, night song,
none, nones, nonnegotiable demand,
notice, novena, nuisance tax, object, objective, obligation, observance, occupation, odd job, office, onus, operation, operational
purpose, order, order of
worship, ordinance,
ought, part, personal property tax, piece
of work, place, poll, poll tax, position, practice, praise meeting,
prayer, prayer meeting,
prayers, prescribed
form, prestige,
prime, prime song,
progressive tax, project, property tax,
property-increment tax, protective tariff, province, provincial tax,
public worship, purpose,
rates, regard, requirement, requisition, respect, responsibility, revenue
tariff, reverence,
reverential regard, revival, revival meeting,
right, rite, ritual, ritual observance,
rituality, role, rush, rush order, sacrament, sacramental, sales tax, salt
tax, school tax, selective service, separate returns, service, severance tax, sext, single tax, solemnity, specific duty,
state tax, stint, supertax, surtax, target, tariff, tariff duty, task, tax, tax base, tax dodging, tax
evasion, tax exemption, tax return, tax structure, tax withholding,
tax-exempt status, taxable income, taxation, taxing, telephone tax, tent
meeting, things to do, tierce, tithe, toll, tribute, ultimate purpose,
ultimatum, undersong, use, use tax, value added tax,
veneration, vesper, vespers, vigils, warning, watch meeting, watch
night, watch-night service, weight, window tax, withholding
tax, work, worship