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

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

On the other hand, he carries his habit too far of making a particular phrase do duty as an index of a character.

From Dickens English Men of Letters by Ward, Adolphus William, Sir

"I suggest that the past officers take the places of the second, third, and fourth lieutenants, who shall do duty as seamen," said Leavitt, the second officer.

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

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