Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Peter Mark Roget

accountableness†, liability, onus, responsibility; bounden duty, imperative duty; call, call of duty; accountability. allegiance, fealty, tie engagement &c (promise) 768; part; function, calling &c (business) 625. morality, morals, decalogue; case of conscience; conscientiousness &c (probity) 939; conscience, inward monitor, still small voice within, sense of duty, tender conscience, superego; the hell within [Paradise Lost]. dueness &c 924; propriety, fitness, seemliness, amenability, decorum, to prepon; the thing, the proper thing; the right thing to do, the proper thing to do. [Science of morals] ethics, ethology.; deontology†, aretology†; moral philosophy, ethical philosophy; casuistry, polity. observance, fulfillment, discharge, performance, acquittal, satisfaction, redemption; good behavior. V. be the duty of; be incumbent &c adj.. on, be responsible &c adj.; behoove, become, befit, beseem; belong to, pertain to; fall to one's lot; devolve on; lie upon, lie on one's head, lie at one's door; rest with, rest on the shoulders of. take upon oneself &c (promise) 768; be bound to, become bound to, be sponsor for, become sponsor for; incur a responsibility &c n.; be under an obligation, stand under an obligation, lie under an obligation; have to answer for, owe to it oneself. impose a duty, &c n.; enjoin, require, exact; bind, bind over; saddle with, prescribe, assign, call upon, look to, oblige. enter upon a duty, perform a duty, observe a duty, fulfill a duty, discharge a duty, adhere to a duty, acquit oneself of a duty, satisfy a duty, enter upon an obligation, perform an obligation, observe an obligation, fulfill an obligation, discharge an obligation, adhere to an obligation, acquit oneself of an obligation, satisfy an obligation; act one's part, redeem one's pledge, do justice to, be at one's post; do duty; do one's duty &c (be virtuous) 944. be on one's good behavior, mind one's P's and Q's. Adj. obligatory, binding; imperative, peremptory; stringent &c (severe) 739; behooving &c v.; incumbent on, chargeable on; under obligation; obliged by, bound by, tied by; saddled with. due to, beholden to, bound to, indebted to; tied down; compromised &c (promised) 768; in duty bound. amenable, liable, accountable, responsible, answerable. right, meet &c (due) 924; moral, ethical, casuistical, conscientious, ethological. Adv. with a safe conscience, as in duty, bound, on one's own responsibility, at one's own risk, suo periculo [Lat.]; in foro conscientiae [Lat.]; quamdiu se bene gesserit [Lat.]. Phr. dura lex sed lex [Lat.]; dulce et decorum est pro patria mori [Lat.]; honos habet onus [Lat.]; leve fit quod bene fertur onus [Lat.] [Ovid]; loyaute m'oblige [Fr.]; simple duty bath no place for fear [Whittier]; stern daughter of the voice of God [Wordsworth]; there is a higher law than the Constitution [Wm. Seward].