| 释义 |
duty|ˈdjuːtɪ|
Forms: 3 deuyte, 4 dewete, (dwete), 4–5 duete(e, duyte, 4–6 deute, dewte(e, 5 dutee, (dywte), dwte, 5–6 dute, dutye, 5–7 dutie, 6 deuty, duitie, Sc. deuitie, dewite, 6–7 dew(e)tie, -y(e, duetie, -y(e, 6– duty.
[a. AF. dueté, duité, deweté, f. du, due due: see -ty, and cf. beauty, fealty. Not recorded in continental French: cf. devoir.]
1. a. The action and conduct due to a superior; homage, submission; due respect, reverence; an expression of submission, deference, or respect.
1297R. Glouc. (1724) 316 Þe kyng..gret deuyte tolde of hem, vor her gentryse. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2202 That goode Arcite..Departed is with duetee and honour Out of this foule prisonne of this lyf. c1485Digby Myst. (1882) iv. 994 To do hym reuerence & dewtee. 1551T. Wilson Logike (1580) 70 [To] dooe his dutie with his Cappe of to his better. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 147 Stay not thy complement, I forgiue thy duetie, adue. 1602― Ham. i. ii. 252 Our duty to your Honour. 1703Rowe Fair Penit. Ded., What Duty, what Submission shall they not pay to that Authority? 1851H. Martineau Hist. Peace (1877) III. v. ix. 383 Before noon came the lord mayor, with aldermen and other members of the Corporation, to offer their duty on behalf of the city of London. 1875Princess Alice in Mem. 15 June (1884) 337 Many, many kisses from all children, and William's respectful duty.
b. spec. An action due to a feudal superior or lord of a manor. Cf. also 3 c.
1893Elton & Mackay Law of Copyholds App. v. No. 17. 502 To have and to hold..according to the custom of the manor, by and under the rents, duties, and services therefor due and of right accustomed.
†2. That which is owing to any one; (one's) due; a debt; a charge, fee, etc. legally due; a due portion or allowance. of duty: as a debt or thing due. Obs.
a. with possessive of the person to whom it is due.
c1386Chaucer Friar's T. 54 His maister had not half his duetee. Ibid. 93 To reysen vp a rente That longeth to my lordes duetee. c1440Generydes 2016 He and his ayeris claymeth it of dewte. 1476Sir J. Paston in Paston Lett. No. 779 III. 166 Dyverse have lost mony er they cowde gete ther dywtes owte off the Staple. 1487Act 3 Hen. VII, c. 4 [5] Preamb., To defraude ther creditours of their duties. 1526–34Tindale Matt. xx. 14 Take that which is thy duty. ― Luke xii. 42 To geve them their duetie of meate at due season. 1541Barnes Wks. (1573) 231/1 To him that worketh is the rewarde not geuen of fauour, but of duetye. 1642tr. Perkins' Prof. Bk. xi. §755 A stranger by his act without my assent shall not take away my duty.
b. with possessive of the person by whom it is due.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems 141 (Mätz.) How may this be that thou art froward To hooly chirche to pay thy dewtee. 1540R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) B b viij, To pay their duty unto nature, as their creditor. 1573Satir. Poems Reform. xlii. 198 Kirkis..dois also pay Thair dewtie alsweill as thay. 1628Coke On Litt. 291 a, If A. be accountable to B. and B. releaseth him all his duties.
3. A payment due and enforced by law or custom.
c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon vi. 150 He sholde be free of all maner of duytes the space of x. yeres. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 559 Therewith were they quite of all duetyes, both of rent, custome, tribute, and tolle.
spec. †a. Payment for the services of the church. Chiefly pl. Obs. (superseded by dues).
1431E.E. Wills (1882) 88 Y wille that my parisshe chirches haue alle here duetees. 1514Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 53, I will that the parrysh prest and the parrysh clerke have ther dewty as they by custome have hadde aforetyme. 1546Supplic. Poore Commons (E.E.T.S.) 86 These charitable men..woulde not take the paynes to bury the dead corps, onlesse they had theyr dutye, as they call it. 1552Bk. Com. Prayer, Matrimony, The man shal geue vnto the woman a ring, laying the same vpon the boke with the accustomed duty to the priest and clerke [so also in 1662]. 1562Child Marriages (E.E.T.S.) 139 That they shuld resort to their owne parish churche..and pay their duties accordingly.
b. A payment to the public revenue levied upon the import, export, manufacture, or sale of certain commodities, the transfer of or succession to property, licence to use certain things or practise certain trades or pursuits, or the legal recognition of deeds and documents, as contracts, receipts, certificates, protests, affidavits, etc. Applied to the payments included under the several heads of customs, excise, licences, stamp-duties, probate and succession duties (death duties), inhabited house duty.
In general, ‘duties’ differ from other taxes in that they are levied upon specific articles or transactions, and not upon persons whether by capitation or in proportion to their income or possessions. But the distinction is not strictly observed in language; a ‘window-tax’ and ‘dog-tax’ are duties, as much as the inhabited house duty, or the duty on men-servants.
1474Caxton Chesse 120 The costumes, tolles, scawage, peages and duetees of the cytees. 1509–10Act 1 Hen. VIII, c. 20. §1 Yf eny concelement be founde in the merchaundez of the dewetye aforeseid [= poundage]. 1530Palsgr. 216/1 Dutie or exaction, exaction. 1644Evelyn Diary 11 Oct., Here, having payd some small duty, we bought some trifles offer'd us by the souldiers, but without going on shore. 1660Act 12 Chas. II, c. 4 Sched. of Rules r. 4, Any kind of Wines wch formerlie have paid all the dutyes of the Tonnage inwardes. 1669Sc. Acts Chas. II, c. 9 The tolls customes and other dewties belonging to the said yeerlie fair and weeklie mercat. 1705Lond. Gaz. No. 4154/4, 86 Hogsheads of..White Wine..to be deliver'd free of all Duties, except the Orphans Duty. 1711Swift Jrnl. to Stella 2 Oct., Cards are very dear: there is a duty on them of sixpence a pack. 1711Act 10 Anne, c. 19. §34 The said Books, Prints, and Maps as are to pay the said Duties ad Valorem. 1712Addison Spect. No. 445 ⁋3, I am informed by my Bookseller he must raise the Price of every single Paper to Two-pence, or that he shall not be able to pay the Duty of it. 1766Franklin Exam. Wks. 1887 III. 447 By taxes they [the American colonists] mean internal taxes; by duties they mean customs. 1825McCulloch Pol. Econ. iii. viii. 387 High duties were laid on foreign corn when imported. 1894Act 57 & 58 Vict. c. 30. §34 Duties of income tax granted by this act. 1894Harcourt Sp. Ho. Commons 16 Apr., The death duties have grown up piecemeal and bear traces of their fragmentary origin..There exist at present five duties, and there is a wide distinction between them that may be illustrated by the Probate and Legacy Duty.
c. Sc. Law. A payment made in recognition of feudal superiority; hence, the rent of a feu or lease-hold tenement (perpetual or for a term of years). mails and duties: see mail.
1536Bellenden Cron. Scot. xi. viii. (Jam.), He dischargit thame of all malis and dewteis aucht to hym for v. yeris to cum. c1565Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (1728) 169 Constrained to pay the yearly duty and mails of the said lands. 1606Sc. Acts Jas. VI, c. 13 (title), Act in favouris of his Majesteis vassellis for payment of their blenshe dueties. 1669Sc. Acts Chas. II, c. 5 But preiudice to Superiors, to vse poinding against their Vassalls for their few duties. 1723Blench-duty [see blanch n. 3 c]. 1861W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. s.v., Feu-duty..The feu-duty is truly a rent in cattle, grain, money, or services, generally agricultural; varying in amount from an adequate to a merely elusory rent.
4. a. Action, or an act, that is due in the way of moral or legal obligation; that which one ought or is bound to do; an obligation. (The chief current sense.)
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 360 (MS. Gg. 4. 27) Hym owith o verry duetee..wel to heryn here excusacyons. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xiv. 324 Yet have I lever to serve you, as mi dute is for to doo. 1526–34Tindale Luke xvii. 10 We have done that which was oure duetye to do. 1530, etc. Bounden duty [see bounden 5]. 1560Bible (Genev.) Eccl. xii. 13 Feare God and kepe his commandments: for this is the whole dutie of man. 1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxxi. 186 The entire Knowledge of Civill duty. 1748Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 317 Economy is the duty of all persons, without exception. 1805Nelson in J. K. Laughton Nelson (1895) xi. 221 (Signal at Trafalgar, 21 Oct.), ‘England expects that every man will do his duty.’ 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 15 To do one's duty thoroughly is not easy in the most peaceable times. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. ix. (1877) 183 The New Testament says comparatively little about duties to equals, and enlarges upon duties to inferiors.
b. Absolutely: Moral obligation; the binding force of what is morally right. (Sometimes personified.)
1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 195 Where duetie can haue no shewe, honestie can beare no sway. 1671Milton P.R. iii. 172 Zeal and duty are not slow, But on Occasion's forelock watchful wait. 1732Law Serious C. ix. (ed. 2) 132 Out of a pious tender sense of Duty. 1805Wordsw. Ode to Duty i, Stern Daughter of the Voice of God! O Duty! 1869Lowell Parting of Ways 8 The figure of a woman veiled, that said, ‘My name is Duty, turn and follow me’. 1894Wolseley Marlborough II. xci. 445 In England the noble, selfless word ‘duty’ has long been the motto of her most famous warrior sons.
5. a. The action which one's position or station directly requires; business, office, function.
1375–89in Eng. Gilds 5 Ȝif eny..haue dwellid in þe bretherhede vij. ȝer, and done þerto alle þe duytes with-in þe tyme. 1393Gower Conf. I. 12 Which is the propre duetee Belongend unto the presthode. 1512Act 4 Hen. VIII, c. 1, §2 If..Constables do not theire dutie as is aforesayd. 1535Coverdale 1 Chron. x. 27 Their dewtye was to geue attendaunce to open euery mornynge. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 102 Other Fakiers (whose Duty it is daily to salute the Sun at his Height, Rising, and Setting, with their Musick). 1847Marryat Childr. N. Forest iii, His father..was..too aged to do the duty [of forest ranger].
b. Eccl. Performance of the prescribed services or offices of the church; in R.C. Ch., attendance at the public services, confession, communion, etc.
ministerial duty or clerical duty, or (with contextual indication) simply duty: the regular ministration and service of a clergyman.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 158 b, Whan ye synge or say your duty. 1692Covt. Grace Conditional 71 Persons that have cast off Sabbaths, Duties, Ordinances. 1796Jane Austen Pride & Prej. xiii. (1813) 55 Provided that some other clergyman is engaged to do the duty of the day. 1814― Mansf. Park xxv. (D.), Edmund might, in the common phrase, do the duty of Thornton, that is, he might read prayers and preach. 1843Lever J. Hinton xix. (1878) 132 He [a priest] asked why Tim didn't come to his duties. 1891E. Peacock N. Brendon II. 197 A papist always going to her duties. Mod. He lived in my rectory and took duty for me last August. He does Sunday duty in a neighbouring parish.
c. Mil. Prescribed or appointed military service (now, other than actual engagement with an enemy: see quot. 1853).
1590R. Williams Disc. Warre (ed. 2) 30 Considering the number of hands that come to fight, and to doo duetie. 1607Shakes. Cor. i. vii. 1 Keepe your Duties As I haue set them downe. 1712Steele Spect. No. 493 ⁋1 A Regiment which did Duty in the West-Indies. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 585 It had been wisely determined that the duty of the capital should be chiefly done by the British soldiers in the service of the States General. 1853Stocqueler Milit. Encycl., Duty, the exercise of those functions which belong to a soldier, with this distinction, that duty is counted the mounting guard, etc., where no enemy is to be engaged; but when any body of men marches to meet the enemy, it is strictly called going upon service.
d. School work. The service other than teaching performed by an assistant master, consisting in taking charge of the pupils out of school hours, superintending preparation of lessons, keeping order in corridors and dormitories, and the like.
Sometimes this work is shared among the members of the staff, some of whom are thus on while others are off duty; sometimes it is done entirely, or nearly so, by a duty-master.
e. phr. on duty: engaged in the performance of one's appointed office, service, or task. off duty: the opposite of this; not officially engaged.
1667Milton P.L. i. 333 Men wont to watch On duty. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 134 Killing Two of the Watch on Duty. 1700S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 298, I was upon Duty in the Fort Galture. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest i, On duty with his regiment in Germany. 1852Thackeray Esmond ii. ii, When off duty..Captain Dick often came to console his friends.
f. Of things: to do duty, to discharge a function; to serve or stand for something else.
1825H. Wilson Mem. II. 175 Such a thing on his head, doing duty for a hat! 1871Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §289 Observe that ought once did duty for both these senses. 1873Tristram Moab ii. 28 A railway reading lamp did duty for footlights. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 198 With historians and other prose writers, stock epithets almost always do duty.
g. to do (one's) duty: euphemism for ‘to defecate, urinate’.
1935A. J. Cronin Stars look Down iii. iv. 509 The lamb ran away and stood in the middle of the field doing duties at an adjacent haystack. 1938I. Goldberg Wonder of Words vi. 108 The child..never defecates or urinates; he..does his ‘duty’.
6. Mech. The measure of effectiveness of an engine, expressed by the number of units of practically effective work done per unit amount or weight of fuel. (See also quot. 1890.)
1827D. Gilbert in Phil. Trans. CXVII. 26 Duty, a term first introduced by Mr. Watt, in ascertaining the comparative merit of steam-engines. 1874J. H. Collins Metal Mining 102 Good Cornish engines..in water-works, whose ‘duty’ averages nearly, or quite, 100,000,000 foot-lbs., or in other words, which lift one hundred million pounds of water one foot high, by the consumption of each hundredweight of coal. 1876Tait Rec. Adv. Phys. Sc. vi. 151 The duty of an animal engine is much larger than the duty of any other engine, steam or electro-magnetic. 1890J. W. Powell in Century Mag. 770/2 The amount of water which is needed to serve an acre of land. This is called the ‘duty’ of water, and in the United States it varies widely.
7. a. attrib. and Comb., as duty call, duty dance, duty man; duty-doing, duty-monger; (in sense 3 c) duty-fowl, duty-ore; also duty-bound a., bound by duty; morally or legally obliged (cf. quot. 1591 s.v. bound ppl. a.2 7 a); duty cycle (see quot. 1924); duty-paid a., on which customs or excise-duty has been paid; duty-pay, a bonus paid for work done outside the ordinary routine work (see also quot. 1879); duty-sergeant, a sergeant who has the charge of seeing that military duty (5 c) is done; duty-sounding, the sounding of a trumpet for some special military duty.
1908Hardy Dynasts III. iii. i. 93, I was *duty-bound To let him know. 1957H. Roosenberg Walls came tumbling Down viii. 191 This Dutch officer..would be duty-bound to stop it.
1864C. M. Yonge Trial viii. 142 Forgetting her has not been easy to the payers of *duty calls. 1905Daily Chron. 2 Aug. 4/6 When he [sc. the Kaiser] made his duty-call to the Danish capital.
1924S. R. Roget Dict. Electr. Terms 70/2 *Duty cycle, the cycle of operation (starting, running and stopping) which a motor on intermittent duty performs each time it runs. Duty cycle factor, the ratio of the equivalent constant current during a duty cycle to the steady running current of the motor. 1962Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors xvi. 419 Such low duty-cycle devices as radio beacons. 1971Nature 19 Mar. 160/2 The higher pulse repetition rate of the radar does not increase the accuracy if the signal-to-noise ratios and overall duty cycles (fraction of time that the transmitter is on) are equal in the two cases.
1850J. von Tautphœus The Initials (Bentley Ed.) 325 Released from what he probably considered a *duty dance. 1881‘Rita’ My Lady Coquette viii, I am marked out for..duty-dances for the rest of the evening.
1563Foxe Life Latimer in Serm. & Rem. (1845) p. xvi, Detaining him from his *duty-doing.
1802M. Edgeworth Rosanna i. (1832) 301 Notice that they must pay all the *duty-fowl and duty-geese.
1906Westm. Gaz. 15 Sept. 4/1 Prepared to join the suggested training battalion for a further period of six months, as non-commissioned officers and ‘*Duty-men’. 1942Gen 1 May 42/1 Special dutymen to your stations!
1692Covt. Grace Conditional 71 Calling them, *Duty-mongers, Men of an Old Testament Spirit.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., *Duty-ore (Cornw.), the landlord's share of the ore.
1879Cassell's Fam. Mag. V. 103/2 ‘*Duty pay’ (i.e. extra pay awarded to men whose work is of a specially onerous or responsible kind). 1879C. Marvin Our Public Offices 67 Most of these extras in the way of nomenclature had something handsome attached to them in the shape of gratification money or ‘duty-pay’. 1893Times 13 June 9/4 A large export of *duty-paid Irish spirits.
1890Pall Mall G. 13 Sept. 3/1 There should..be more sergeants to a battalion, so as to give four *duty-sergeants to each company.
1799Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 281 Trumpet *Duty Soundings. 1. Reveillé. 2. Stable Call—For stable duties. 1844Regul. & Ord. Army 140 The Duty-Soundings of every Regiment are to be invariably performed on Trumpets in the Key of E flat.
b. attrib. or quasi-adj. Designating a visit, work, etc., undertaken as a duty (opp. to the same undertaken voluntarily or for pleasure); also applied to a person whom one visits, etc., as a duty. Cf. duty call, dance
1806M. Edgeworth Leonora II. xlii. 4 If it be duty-work kindness, I would not give thanks for it. 1852Geo. Eliot Let. 5 June (1954) II. 32 Mrs. M[ackay] is disagreeably nervous and wanting in ease. One feels very glad when she has done her duty-talk. 1873C. M. Yonge Pillars of House IV. xxxix. 151 Their grandson never went near them if he could help it, only enduring a duty-visit by the help of shooting. 1939C. Isherwood Goodbye to Berlin 268 It was more probably a duty-party, given once a year, to all the relatives, friends and dependents of the family. 1941M. Treadgold We couldn't leave Dinah iv. 64 Dreary duty-visits to the tall sombre house in Eaton Square. 1946A. Christie Hollow i. 13 We had him to lunch with some other Duty people. 1953J. Masters Lotus & Wind vii. 97 Her father circled sedately from time to time with duty-partners. 1970P. Moyes Who saw her Die? i. 14 I'll go and have a duty dinner with Kitty Prestwether. She's been pestering me ever since we got here. |