#926. Duty. -- N. duty, what ought to be done, moral obligation, accountableness[obs], liability, onus, responsibility; bounden duty, imperative duty; call, call of duty,; accountability.
allegiance, fealty, tie engagement &c. (promise) 768; part; function, calling &c. (business) 625.
morality,, morals, decalogue; case of conscience; conscientiousness &c. (probity) 939; conscience, inward monitor, still small voice within, sense of duty, tender conscience, superego; the hell within [P. L.]. dueness &c. 924; propriety, fitness, seemliness, amenability, decorum, </to prepon/>; the thing, the proper thing; the right thing to do, the proper thing to do.
[Science of morals] ethics, ethology.; deontology[obs], aretology[obs]; moral philosophy, ethical philosophy,; casuistry, polity.
observance, fulfillment, discharge, performance, acquittal, satisfaction, redemption; good behavior.
V. be the duty of; be incumbent &c. adj. on, be responsible &c. adj.; behoove, become, befit, beseem; belong to, pertain to; fall to one's lot; devolve on; lie upon, lie on one's head, lie at one's door; rest with, rest on the shoulders of. take upon oneself &c. (promise) 768; be bound to, become bound to, be sponsor for, become sponsor for; incur a responsibility &c. n.; be under an obligation, stand under an obligation, lie under an obligation; have to answer for, owe to it oneself.
impose a duty, &c. n.; enjoin, require, exact; bind, bind over; saddle with, prescribe, assign, call upon, look to, oblige.
enter upon a duty, perform a duty, observe a duty, fulfill a duty, discharge a duty, adhere to a duty, acquit oneself of a duty, satisfy a duty, enter upon an obligation, perform an obligation, observe an obligation, fulfill an obligation, discharge an obligation, adhere to an obligation, acquit oneself of an obligation, satisfy an obligation; act one's part, redeem one's pledge, do justice to, be at one's post; do duty; do one's duty &c. (be virtuous) 944.
be on one's good behavior, mind one's P's and Q's.
Adj. obligatory, binding; imperative, peremptory; stringent &c. (severe) 739; behooving &c. v.; incumbent on, chargeable on; under obligation; obliged by, bound by, tied by; saddled with.
due to, beholden to, bound to, indebted to; tied down; compromised &c. (promised) 768; in duty bound.
amenable, liable, accountable, responsible, answerable.
right, meet &c. (due) 924; moral, ethical, casuistical, conscientious, ethological.
Adv. with a safe conscience, as in duty, bound, on one's own responsibility, at one's own risk, suo periculo[Lat]; in foro conscientiae[Lat]; quamdiu se bene gesserit[Lat].
Phr. dura lex sed lex[Lat]; dulce et decorum est pro patria mori[Lat]; honos habet onus[Lat]; leve fit quod bene fertur onus [Lat][Ovid]; loyaute m'oblige[Fr]; " simple duty bath no place for fear " [Whittier]; " stern daughter of the voice of God " [Wordsworth]; " there is a higher law than the Constitution " [Wm. Seward].