Devoir
Pronunciation
- IPA: /dəˈvwÉ‘Ë/
Origin
From Old French deveir (French devoir), from Latin debere ("to owe")
Full definition of devoir
Noun
devoir
(plural devoirs)- (archaic) Duty, business; something which one must do.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, vol. 1 p. 149:he imprint not so much in his schollers mind ... where Marcellus died, as because he was unworthy of his devoire he died there ....
- '"1787"', 'The History of Lady Emma Melcombe and her family' a novel by Winifred Marshall Gales, vol. 3. p. 155:I should have long ere this paid my devoirs to the inhabitants of Raymond Castle.
- 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol. 1:Then quoth the portress to the mistress of the house, "O my lady, arise and go to thy place that I in turn may do my devoir."
- 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1057:That is the little bit of essential information which enables us to complete our devoir – without it we are just ordinary people, dispossessed, taken unawares: the original sin!