line up one's ducks
line up one's ducks verb: to organize one's affairs so that one is ready to act efficiently.
Verb
line up one's ducks (third-person singular simple present lines up one's ducks, present participle lining up one's ducks, simple past and past participle lined up one's ducks)
- To organize one's affairs so that one is ready to act efficiently.
- "Senator Allen was one reason he made up his mind to go to Washington. He'd like to get some of the windbags out of our way and line up our ducks."1968, Henrietta Buckmaster, The lion in the stone: a novel, page 340
- On Saturday, August 1, the Commissioner lined up his ducks and summoned the owners to a conference the following day at 12:30 p.m. in his wood-paneled office on the twelfth floor at 410 Park Avenue.1971, George R. Metcalf, Up from Within: Today's New Black Leaders, page 230
Forms of line up one's ducks
| third-person singular present | lines up one's ducks |
|---|---|
| present participle | lining up one's ducks |
| past participle | lined up one's ducks |
| past | lined up one's ducks |
Origin of line up one's ducks
Unknown. Most likely a reference to the line of ducks in a shooting gallery.
Questions about line up one's ducks
- What does line up one's ducks mean?
- Line up one's ducks means to organize one's affairs so that one is ready to act efficiently.
- What part of speech is line up one's ducks?
- Line up one's ducks is a verb.
- What is the past tense of line up one's ducks?
- The past tense of line up one's ducks is lined up one's ducks.
Words near line up one's ducks in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: line up one's ducks (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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