lame duck

la·mé duck

L l

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- [lah-mey, la- duhk]
- /lɑˈmeɪ, læ- dʌk/
- /leɪm dʌk/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [lah-mey, la- duhk]
- /lɑˈmeɪ, læ- dʌk/

Definitions of lame duck words

noun lame duck an elected official or group of officials, as a legislator, continuing in office during the period between an election defeat and a successor's assumption of office. 1
noun lame duck a president who is completing a term of office and chooses not to run or is ineligible to run for reelection. 1
noun lame duck a person finishing a term of employment after a replacement has been chosen. 1
noun lame duck anything soon to be supplanted by another that is more efficient, economical, etc. 1
noun lame duck a person or thing that is disabled, helpless, ineffective, or inefficient. 1
noun lame duck a person who has lost a great deal of money in speculations on the stock market. 1

See all 20 definitions of lame duck

Information block about the term

Origin of lame duck

First appearance:

before 1755

One of the 47% newest English words

First recorded in 1755-65

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Lame duck

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Lame duck

lame duck popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 46% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 62% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

lame duck usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for lame duck

noun lame duck

holdover — a person or thing remaining from a former period.
incumbent — holding an indicated position, role, office, etc., currently: the incumbent officers of the club.
loser — a person, team, nation, etc., that loses: The visiting team was the loser in the series.
weakling — a person who is physically or morally weak.

All 4 Synonyms of lame duck