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do one's duty. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From doo-doo, doody, etc. used as euphemisms for shit.
Verb
do one's duty (third-person singular simple present does one's duty, present participle doing one's duty, simple past did one's duty, past participle done one's duty)
- (euphemistic) Synonym of use the toilet: to urinate or defecate.
1996, Derrick Humphreys, John A. Munro, The making of a grey panther: the Derrick Humphreys story, page 8:And when I was being toilet-trained as a very little boy, she'd always ask, "Have you done your duty?" That was the word for it.
2012, Alan Watts, Zen and the Beat Way:If a society is incapable of that kind of trust, it is also incapable of freedom. But if one really believes that only productivity can create strength — that a human being, in other words, has to justify himself or herself by producing something — then maybe the psychoanalysts are right, and everything does go back to toilet training and mother's saying, "Have you produced today, have you done your duty?"
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see do, duty.
Usage notes
- Used by caregivers when toilet-training young children.
Synonyms