Word.ws English Dictionary

having one's ducks in a row

having one's ducks in a row is the present participle and gerund of have one's ducks in a row.

Meaning of have one's ducks in a row

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?

Questions about having one's ducks in a row

What is having one's ducks in a row the present participle and gerund of?
Having one's ducks in a row is the present participle and gerund of have one's ducks in a row.

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

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having one's ducks in a row (page history and authors); 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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