break one's duck
break one's duck verb: to score one's first run in an innings.
Verb
break one's duck (third-person singular simple present breaks one's duck, present participle breaking one's duck, simple past broke one's duck, past participle broken one's duck)
- To score one's first run in an innings.
- To do something for the first time.
- Best had come on as a substitute in the 1-0 win at Wigan last weekend and wasted a goalscoring opportunity after stumbling as he was about to shoot, so many of the fans in black and white could have been forgiven for thinking that perhaps the burly forward was destined not to break his duck.2011 January 5, Saj Chowdhury, “Newcastle 0 - 0 West Ham”, in BBC
Forms of break one's duck
| third-person singular present | breaks one's duck |
|---|---|
| present participle | breaking one's duck |
| past | broke one's duck |
| past participle | broken one's duck |
Origin of break one's duck
From cricket, where duck means a score of zero.
Questions about break one's duck
- What does break one's duck mean?
- Break one's duck means to score one's first run in an innings.
- What part of speech is break one's duck?
- Break one's duck is a verb.
- What is the past tense of break one's duck?
- The past tense of break one's duck is broke one's duck.
Words near break one's duck in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: break one's duck (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-break one's duck.ogg.
Cite this entry: “break one's duck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/break_one%27s_duck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.