Word.ws English Dictionary

in the line of duty

in the line of duty prepositional phrase: as part of or while performing official duties, usually of the military or police personnel, or of government officials.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) As part of or while performing official duties, usually of the military or police personnel, or of government officials.
    • "I'd hate to have the Inspector send in a report to headquarters, 'Constable Beresford missing in the line of duty.'"1922, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 35, in Man Size
    • Last year 88 other U.S. policemen were killed in the line of duty.1965 September 10, “Helping the Widows”, in Time, retrieved 20 Mar 2018
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, the, line, of, duty.

Questions about in the line of duty

What does in the line of duty mean?
In the line of duty means as part of or while performing official duties, usually of the military or police personnel, or of government officials.
What part of speech is in the line of duty?
In the line of duty is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the line of duty in the dictionary

  1. in the lead
  2. in the least
  3. in the light of
  4. in the limelight
  5. in the limit
  6. in the line of duty
  7. in the long run
  8. in the long term
  9. in the loop
  10. in the lump
  11. in the main

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the line of duty (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-in the line of duty.ogg.

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