lame duck
lame duck noun: a person or thing that is helpless, inefficient, or disabled.
Noun
lame duck (plural lame ducks)
- A person or thing that is helpless, inefficient, or disabled.
- Thus is happens, that, when a considerable loss arises from such contract, the principal on whole behalf it was made, refuses to fulfil it; in this case, the loss falls upon the broker, without remedy; and if he does not fulfil the contract in default of his prinicipal, he foreits his credit and...1763 January, anonymous author, The Gentleman's and London Magazine, page 288
- A few days after our dinner at the Albion, Glover's city speculations, in spite of his unceasing attention in watching the marker, went altogether wrong, and the poor fellow waddled away from Chapel Court a defaulter, or as the stock-brokers emphatically called it, a lame duck.1825, Ned Clinton; or The Commissary, page 186
- An elected official who has lost the recent election or is not eligible for reelection and is marking time until leaving office.
- Congressman Jones was a lame duck and did not vote on many issues that were important to his constituents.
- This is a lame duck administration, and if it is going to pass out political favors worth multimillions of dollars per year, it must move.1968 October 3, Congressional Record, page 29513, column 2
- A person who cannot fulfill their contracts.
- Synonyms:
- duck
- A server that continues to serve ongoing requests while refusing new ones, allowing for graceful shutdown.
Verb
lame duck (third-person singular simple present lame ducks, present participle lame ducking, simple past and past participle lame ducked)
lame duck meaning in Arabic and Thai
lame duck in Arabic
- an official who is marking time until leaving their office
- الْبَطَّةُ الْعَرْجَاءُ al-baṭṭatu l-ʕarjāʔu
lame duck in Thai
- an official who is marking time until leaving their office
- เป็ดง่อย bpèt-ngɔ̂i
Examples of lame duck in a sentence
- Reflecting on this in our 800th issue seven years ago, RAIL said the broad government view in 1981 was that BR [British Rail] was a lame duck.2024 January 10, Howard Johnston, “Launched for enthusiasts - now it's for everyone”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 28:
- So it is quite possible that there will be a Biden bounce in the last six months of his presidency, even if he is a lame duck.2024 July 22, Ed Pilkington, “Can lame duck Joe Biden give legs to Harris campaign in final six months?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Synonyms of lame duck
Forms of lame duck
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lame ducks |
| alternative form | lame-duck |
| alternative form | lameduck |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lame ducks |
| present participle | lame ducking |
| past participle | lame ducked |
| past | lame ducked |
Origin of lame duck
Equivalent to lame + duck. First use appears c. 1761, in the London Evening Post. Derived from the situation in which a person who had defaulted in the London Stock Exchange was said to waddle out of Exchange Alley like a lame duck. Verbal form first appears c. 1910.
Questions about lame duck
- What does lame duck mean?
- Lame duck means a person or thing that is helpless, inefficient, or disabled.
- What is lame duck in Arabic?
- Lame duck in Arabic is الْبَطَّةُ الْعَرْجَاءُ (al-baṭṭatu l-ʕarjāʔu). See Lame duck meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use lame duck in a sentence?
- Reflecting on this in our 800th issue seven years ago, RAIL said the broad government view in 1981 was that BR [British Rail] was a lame duck.
- What part of speech is lame duck?
- Lame duck can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of lame duck?
- The plural of lame duck is lame ducks.
Words near lame duck in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lame 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-lame duck.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-lame duck.wav.
Cite this entry: “lame duck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lame_duck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.