duty
/ˈdjuː.ti/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.71 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
Countable; Uncountable
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "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!"
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: duete, dewe, -te