Search Result for "duties": 

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Duty \Du"ty\, n.; pl. Duties. [From Due.] 1. That which is due; payment. [Obs. as signifying a material thing.] [1913 Webster] When thou receivest money for thy labor or ware, thou receivest thy duty. --Tyndale. [1913 Webster] 2. That which a person is bound by moral obligation to do, or refrain from doing; that which one ought to do; service morally obligatory. [1913 Webster] Forgetting his duty toward God, his sovereign lord, and his country. --Hallam. [1913 Webster] 3. Hence, any assigned service or business; as, the duties of a policeman, or a soldier; to be on duty. [1913 Webster] With records sweet of duties done. --Keble. [1913 Webster] To employ him on the hardest and most imperative duty. --Hallam. [1913 Webster] Duty is a graver term than obligation. A duty hardly exists to do trivial things; but there may be an obligation to do them. --C. J. Smith. [1913 Webster] 4. Specifically, obedience or submission due to parents and superiors. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 5. Respect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage. "My duty to you." --Shak. [1913 Webster] 6. (Engin.) The efficiency of an engine, especially a steam pumping engine, as measured by work done by a certain quantity of fuel; usually, the number of pounds of water lifted one foot by one bushel of coal (94 lbs. old standard), or by 1 cwt. (112 lbs., England, or 100 lbs., United States). [1913 Webster] 7. (Com.) Tax, toll, impost, or customs; excise; any sum of money required by government to be paid on the importation, exportation, or consumption of goods. [1913 Webster] Note: An impost on land or other real estate, and on the stock of farmers, is not called a duty, but a direct tax. [U.S.] [1913 Webster] Ad valorem duty, a duty which is graded according to the cost, or market value, of the article taxed. See Ad valorem. Specific duty, a duty of a specific sum assessed on an article without reference to its value or market. On duty, actually engaged in the performance of one's assigned task. [1913 Webster]
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

DUTIES. In its most enlarged sense, this word is nearly equivalent to taxes, embracing all impositions or charges levied on persons or things; in its more restrained sense, it is often used as equivalent to customs, (q.v.) or imposts. (q.v.) Story, Const. Sec. 949. Vide, for the rate of duties payable on goods and merchandise, Gord. Dig. B. 7, t. 1, c. 1; Story's L. U. S. Index, h.t.