accountableness†, 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 [Paradise
Lost].
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†, aretology†;
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].