duty bound


duty bound

Obligated or expected to do something. Now that our parents are dead, I'm duty bound to care for my siblings. As a parent, you are duty bound to protect your child.See also: bound, duty

duty bound

(to do something) forced by a sense of duty and honor to do something. Good evening, madam. I'm duty bound to inform you that we have arrested your husband. No one made me say that. I was duty bound.See also: bound, duty

duty bound

Obliged, as in You're duty bound to help your little brother. [c. 1900] See also: bound, duty

duty bound

morally or legally obliged to do something.See also: bound, duty

duty bound

Obliged: You are duty bound to help your little sister and brother.See also: bound, duty

duty bound, to be

To be firmly obligated. This term is derived from bounden duty, which dates from the 1500s and was actually redundant, since from the 1400s bound also meant “under obligations.” The term also retains this form three centuries later: “It was his bounden duty to accept the office” (Harriet Martineau, The Manchester Strike, 1833). At some point this locution was grammatically changed to the present participial usage, as in “I’m duty bound to report this violation to the dean.”See also: duty