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

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

When the preparations for the metamorphosis are at hand, the stomachic pouch, having no longer to do duty as a digestive laboratory, serves the insect as a factory, or a warehouse for different purposes.

From The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander

The field magnet, in addition to furnishing the magnetic field, has to do duty as a framework which often involves considerations other than those respecting maximum economy.

From Hawkins Electrical Guide, Number One Questions, Answers, & Illustrations, A Progressive Course of Study for Engineers, Electricians, Students and Those Desiring to acquire a Working Knowledge of Electricity and its Applications by Hawkins, Nehemiah