How to Use duty in a Sentence

duty

1 of 2 noun
  • They helped her out of a sense of duty.
  • We felt it was our duty to help.
  • I'll be ready when duty calls.
  • His primary duty at the event is to take attendance.
  • He has a duty to support his family.
  • If new employees are unable to carry out their duties, they may be fired.
  • Many reserve troops were called into active duty.
  • Her brother returned from duty overseas.
  • But maybe at least the duty fees?
    — Alina Selyukh, NPR, 24 Feb. 2026
  • Look for duties that support your long-term goals.
    — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 7 Jan. 2026
  • This does double duty as a spice grinder.
    — Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 20 Apr. 2026
  • Most have returned to duty, one of the sources said.
    — Lucia I Suarez Sang, CBS News, 7 Apr. 2026
  • Saracco was off duty at the time.
    — Madeline Buckley, Chicago Tribune, 26 May 2026
  • Burke had those duties last season.
    — Lamond Pope, Chicago Tribune, 17 Mar. 2026
  • It prescribed duties for young men in Athens.
    — Michelle L. Quinn, Chicago Tribune, 4 May 2026
  • The other two sailors have been cleared to return to duty.
    — Steve Walsh, NPR, 17 Mar. 2026
  • Joe Milton went in there, mop-up duty, played well.
    — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Oct. 2025
  • The linen pant isn’t just great off-duty, but for summer-in-the-city styling too.
    — Minty Mellon, Vogue, 17 June 2026
  • Carter was off-duty, but armed at the time she was arrested.
    — Ben Wheeler, Kansas City Star, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Having a single pan means cleanup duty just got a whole lot faster.
    — Libby Monteith Minor, Southern Living, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it.
    — Michael Collins, USA Today, 11 Feb. 2026
  • For laundry duty, that means making more seem like less.
    — Jodi Gonzalez, The Spruce, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Every agent failed to complete most of its duties.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 6 May 2026
  • The bowls can pull double duty and be used to serve dressings, sauces and dips as well.
    — Catherine Garcia, TheWeek, 12 May 2026
  • And do your democratic duty to vote.
    — Joe Walsh, CBS News, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Only about 300 are still on duty there.
    — Larry Kaplow, NPR, 2 Sep. 2025
  • The agency hopes to welcome him back to duty as a deputy in the future.
    — Marybel Rodriguez, CBS News, 2 Feb. 2026
  • Of that, 108 have been returned to duty.
    — Steven Beynon, ABC News, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Officials have a duty to right the wrongs of the past, not repeat them.
    — Gustavo Rivera, New York Daily News, 10 Mar. 2026
  • That means that you could be caught between public duties and private ones.
    — Tarot.com, The Orlando Sentinel, 7 Feb. 2026

duty

2 of 2 adjective
  • Connelly was able to flag down an off-duty police officer from the side of the road.
    — Sarah Ladd, The Courier-Journal, 1 July 2019
  • Her father was an off-duty metro officer who had come to assist the injured.
    — Megan Cassidy, USA TODAY, 5 Oct. 2017
  • The teens tried to rescue him, and at one point an off-duty police officer also dove in to help search for him.
    — Adam Sennott, BostonGlobe.com, 3 June 2018
  • The off-duty police officer pulled out her own gun and fired at the robber three times, hitting him in the chest and leg.
    — Amanda Erickson, Washington Post, 14 May 2018
  • The off-duty school officer is married to one of the female victims, police said.
    — Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2018
  • Police were called to the store to help an off-duty police officer to remove Juarez from the store.
    — Fox News, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Among the injured was a preschool-age child and an off-duty police officer who arrested the driver.
    — Tacey Rychter and Gerry Mullany, New York Times, 21 Dec. 2017
  • One of the dead includes an off-duty police officer who was attending the concert.
    — Karen Kucher, sandiegouniontribune.com, 2 Oct. 2017
  • Off-duty police officer Katia Sastre pulled out her own gun and put the man down.
    — Fox News, 15 May 2018
  • Kirkpatrick’s body was found in her Hurdle Mills front yard by an off-duty police officer.
    — Chris Harris, PEOPLE.com, 20 Sep. 2019
  • The men in the car behind us were off-duty emergency medical technicians.
    — Mindy Van Wingen, Cosmopolitan, 2 June 2015
  • The woman went to a first aid station for treatment and contacted an off-duty police officer.
    — Usa Today Sports, USA TODAY, 3 May 2017
  • The woman happened to be an off-duty police officer in some type of medical distress.
    — Marlisse Cepeda, Woman's Day, 23 Feb. 2016
  • Ziemba faces charges of trespassing and assault of the off-duty police officer.
    — Khou.com Staff, USA TODAY, 31 Dec. 2017
  • The driver was captured by an off-duty police officer soon after his car crashed into a post next to a tram stop in the center of the street.
    — Rob Taylor, WSJ, 22 Dec. 2017
  • Thankfully an off-duty police officer was nearby and helped waive down a pick-up truck to transport him to the hospital.
    — Essence.com, 3 Oct. 2017
  • In Missouri, a black off-duty police officer tried to assist after a police car chase ended in a shootout near his home.
    — Lucy McBath, Cosmopolitan, 23 June 2017
  • The man, whose name has not been released, was chased by passers-by, including an off-duty police officer, and arrested near the station.
    — Washington Post, 30 July 2019
  • McLemore was in the company of a female off-duty police officer during the offense.
    — Carol Robinson | [email protected], al, 10 Nov. 2019
  • Off-duty police officer Amber Guyger has been charged with manslaughter and has since been released on bond.
    — Fox News, 13 Sep. 2018
  • Police said the caller noticed what looked like an off-duty police officer intoxicated in the drive-thru lane.
    — Indianapolis Star, 3 Mar. 2018
  • The shooting came two days after an off-duty police officer in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was shot and killed.
    — Fox News, 31 Mar. 2018
  • All three were shot on June 14 by an off-duty police officer in a Costco in Corona.
    — Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2019
  • Chauvin worked as an off-duty police officer for the club for nearly 17 years, Santamaria said.
    — Scottie Andrew, CNN, 1 June 2020
  • Officers were told the people involved in the fight had been separated, and one of them was an off-duty police officer, the release said.
    — Mike Cruz, azcentral, 15 June 2019
  • Should the city of Chicago have to pay $44 million for a shooting involving an off-duty police officer?
    — Chicago Tribune Staff, chicagotribune.com, 12 Dec. 2019
  • The off-duty police officer then became involved in a verbal altercation with the man and alleged that the man threatened him, police said.
    — Staff Report, chicagotribune.com, 22 Dec. 2017
  • According to police, their cars had been weaving in and out of traffic before stopping in a fire lane, leading an off-duty police officer to tell the mourners to move.
    — Rosemary Regina Sobol, chicagotribune.com, 26 July 2017
  • Taliefer was found at an apartment complex where the Kia had been spotted by an off-duty police officer the day after Coleman's killing, records state.
    — Ryan Martin, Indianapolis Star, 30 Oct. 2017
  • Then, in the early 1990s, a bar bouncer killed an off-duty police officer and another man after a barroom brawl.
    — Corey Kilgannon, New York Times, 10 Mar. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'duty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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