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Glite Dictionary
duty calls

duty calls

1 4.9
A responsibility that requires you to stop what you are doing and act
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : el deber llama
  • We'd feel guilty if we gave up, so duty calls.
  • Sorry, duty calls

Examples

  • When duty calls, you pay the price.

  • Others turn their insides to steel when duty calls.

    Blog text (7)

  • There are times when duty calls, and this is one of those times.

    Blog text (28)

  • I'd love to stay and support my wife, but unfortunately, duty calls.

    Ballerina Assassin (2025)

  • When duty calls, I will again be ready to defend the country against all enemies, foreign or domestic.

    Blog text (17)

  • Gentlemen, duty calls.

    Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

  • I'd love to stay and support my wife, but unfortunately, duty calls.

  • There are times when duty calls, and this is one of those times.

Antonyms

to ignore
∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

to evade
31 3.9

To avoid doing something you should do, for example a duty or a direct question

Surface Forms

duty calls main

Morphology

duty + call

The phrase 'duty calls' is a simple personification where 'duty' (responsibility) and 'call' (a demand or summons) combine to mean that an obligation requires action. A B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer this meaning from the literal senses and common metaphor of being 'called' to act, so the expression is transparently compositional.

Etymology

The phrase duty calls comes from the image of a bell or bugle sounding to call people to their work or to a task. People would stop what they were doing when they heard the call, so today duty calls means you must go and do what your 'responsibility' asks.