Word.ws English Dictionary

duck or no dinner

duck or no dinner phrase: synonym of take it or leave it. Also the alternative form of all duck or no dinner.

Phrase

duck or no dinner

  1. Synonym of take it or leave it.
    • "Do you mean it is 'fish or cut bait,' 'duck or no dinner ?'" asked the librarian.1917, Malcolm C. Fenwick, Life in the Cup, page 22
    • You were urged to keep status quo, shut your mouth, and go along with the flow. It was sort of like a Louisiana saying, "It was duck or no dinner."2014, Art Crews, Judy Burleigh-Crews, We Made ’Em Look Good, page 76

Also used as

duck or no dinner is also the alternative form of all duck or no dinner.

Synonyms of duck or no dinner

Questions about duck or no dinner

What does duck or no dinner mean?
Duck or no dinner means synonym of take it or leave it.
What part of speech is duck or no dinner?
Duck or no dinner is a phrase.

Words near duck or no dinner in the dictionary

  1. duck moles
  2. duck off
  3. duck on a rock
  4. duck on drake
  5. duck on the rock
  6. duck or no dinner
  7. duck orchid
  8. duck out
  9. duck pond
  10. duck ponds
  11. duck potato

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duck or no dinner (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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