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Glite Dictionary
point duty

point duty

6.8
Work directing cars and people at a road intersection
  • noun
  • Indian
translation icon : control de tráfico
  • The police officer was assigned to point duty at the busy intersection to help direct traffic.

Examples

  • He's been up and down there on point duty, the last 10 minutes.

    Bloom (2003)

  • I've come straight off point duty.

    The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

  • "For this reason, Indians in Vietnam were often assigned the unenviable task of 'point' duty on patrols and large-scale troop movements.

    Academic text (2002)

  • During rush hour, the officer on point duty ensured that both cars and pedestrians moved safely across the intersection.

  • After his shift on point duty, he reported that traffic flow had improved significantly.

Synonyms

traffic control
vspoint duty
21 2.9

Directing vehicles and people so they move safely and smoothly

is narrower, done by a police officer at an intersection directing traffic

Surface Forms

point duty singular
point duties plural

Morphology

point + duty

The compounds 'point' (a specific location) and 'duty' (a responsibility) transparently yield a general sense of a responsibility performed at a particular spot, so a B1 learner could infer it involves being on duty at a location. However, the specific institutional meaning — policing traffic at an intersection — is specialized jargon and not fully predictable from the parts, so the expression is only partially compositional.

Etymology

The noun point duty comes from the simple image of a police officer standing at one point, a spot, and doing a duty to direct cars and people with hand signals. That's why point duty means 'the job of directing traffic at an intersection'.