Word.ws English Dictionary

have one's ducks in a row

have one's ducks in a row verb: to be organized; to have one's affairs in order; specifically, to have a multiperson effort coordinated towards the exact same goal.

have one's ducks in a row: to be organized; to have one's affairs in order; specifically, to have a multiperson effort...
Image: AlphaLemur, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

have one's ducks in a row (third-person singular simple present has one's ducks in a row, present participle having one's ducks in a row, simple past and past participle had one's ducks in a row)

  1. (idiomatic) To be organized; to have one's affairs in order; specifically, to have a multiperson effort coordinated towards the exact same goal.
    • Wouldn't it be nice to have our ducks in a row and not have to search for the papers every time we needed them?
    • "You didn't need us." The man standing next to the steps laughed. "The work was done before to-night. You had your ducks in a row all right."1911, Kate Langley Bosher, Miss Gibbie Gault

Forms of have one's ducks in a row

third-person singular presenthas one's ducks in a row
present participlehaving one's ducks in a row
past participlehad one's ducks in a row
pasthad one's ducks in a row
alternative formget one's ducks in a row
alternative formput one's ducks in a row

Origin of have one's ducks in a row

Perhaps from the image of ducklings following their mother in an orderly line. See also line up one's ducks.

Questions about have one's ducks in a row

What does have one's ducks in a row mean?
Have one's ducks in a row means to be organized; to have one's affairs in order; specifically, to have a multiperson effort coordinated towards the exact same goal.
What part of speech is have one's ducks in a row?
Have one's ducks in a row is a verb.
What is the past tense of have one's ducks in a row?
The past tense of have one's ducks in a row is had one's ducks in a row.

Words near have one's ducks in a row in the dictionary

  1. have one's back up
  2. have one's bread buttered for life
  3. have one's bread buttered on both sides
  4. have one's cake and eat it
  5. have one's cake and eat it too
  6. have one's ducks in a row
  7. have one's ears lowered
  8. have one's ears on
  9. have one's ears pinned back
  10. have one's eye on
  11. have one's fill

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have one's ducks in a row (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-have one's ducks in a row.ogg.

Cite this entry: “have one's ducks in a row.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/have_one%27s_ducks_in_a_row. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.