nice weather for ducks
1
9.3
- idiom
- UK
- We looked outside at the pouring rain and joked, "Well, it's nice weather for ducks."
Examples
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It's nice weather for ducks today, so remember to take your raincoat.
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After days of sunshine, yesterday was suddenly nice weather for ducks again.
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It's nice weather for ducks today!
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I guess it's nice weather for ducks this weekend.
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Looking at the dark clouds and heavy rain, I thought to myself, "This is certainly nice weather for ducks!"
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With the heavy downpour outside, my friend quipped, "What a day! It's nice weather for ducks!"
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We decided to stay indoors since it was nice weather for ducks out there.
Synonyms
1
8.9
Very rainy weather that ducks enjoy
A joking phrase for weather so rainy that only ducks enjoy it
Very wet, rainy weather that ducks like
Antonyms
How Wet
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally interpretable — a learner who knows 'nice', 'weather', 'for' and 'duck' can infer that the weather is favorable for ducks (i.e., wet/rainy) because ducks like water. However, the ironic/humorous nuance (that the weather is unpleasant for people but 'nice for ducks') and its pragmatic use as a fixed comment on heavy rain rely on cultural/pragmatic knowledge, so the meaning is not fully predictable.
Etymology
The phrase nice weather for ducks paints a simple picture: ducks enjoy rain and wet ground, so such a day is 'nice' only for them. That's why people say it as a joke to mean 'very wet' or 'rainy' weather.