do duty as

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Having reached Safeway with no fatalities, Stassin and I ordered our respective Loomos to trail us, so that they could do duty as shopping carts.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 19, 2018

Masters, midshipmen, and pursers must do duty as seamen.

From Down the Rhine Young America in Germany by Optic, Oliver

We can't fetch bricks from the other end, and I draw the line at timber to do duty as bricks.

From Scamping Tricks and Odd Knowledge Occasionally Practised upon Public Works by Newman, John Henry

It often happens that an amount of resemblance only sufficient for a rhetorical simile is made to do duty as a solid argument.

From Logic, Inductive and Deductive by Minto, William

A third has detached from its leather one of his stirrup-irons, and is hanging it on a string to do duty as a triangle.

From Jamaican Song and Story Annancy stories, digging sings, ring tunes, and dancing tunes by Jekyll, Walter