duty bound
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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. Like all soldiers, I am duty bound to this country.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
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.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
duty bound
Obliged, as in You're duty bound to help your little brother. [c. 1900]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
duty bound
morally or legally obliged to do something.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
duty bound
Obliged: You are duty bound to help your little sister and brother.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer