do one's duty
English
Verb
- (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?"
- 1996, Derrick Humphreys, John A. Munro, The making of a grey panther: the Derrick Humphreys story, page 8:
- Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see do, duty.
Usage notes
- Used by caregivers when toilet-training young children.
Synonyms
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