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

The necessary changes in matters of history having been made, his volume might do duty as the biographical memoir of thousands of her contemporaries.

From Pot-Boilers by Bell, Clive

A bag of mealie-meal stood in the corner of the tent; I laid this prone so that it might do duty as a table.

From Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer by Scully, W. C. (William Charles)

This anxiety was, however, speedily relieved, by the appearance of Miss Cecile on the upper deck of the junk, waving a petticoat, which she had made do duty as a flag of truce.

From The Three Midshipmen by Prout, Victor

The portion allotted to Dave was removed, ostensibly to keep it warm for him, but reproduced to do duty as a second helping for Dolly.

From When Ghost Meets Ghost by De Morgan, William Frend