lame duck
30
7.4
- noun
- /leɪm dʌk/
- Literature
:
mandatario sin poder
- After losing the election, the senator became a lame duck, unable to affect any major policy decisions.
- lame duck session
- lame duck president
Will McConnell end up getting nothing done in this lame duck session?
- Will McConnell end up getting nothing done in this lame duck session?
- There you have it, an innocent Turkey pardoned by a lame duck.
- And again, the Democrats are missing an opportunity here to start claiming, accurately that Donald Trump is a lame duck already.
- And I think we desperately need that because at at some point he is going to be treated as a lame duck and it will happen sooner rather than later.
- So we even got that done in, in our lame duck.
Examples
-
Even as a lame duck, though, he relied on his strong Conservative majority in Parliament to ensure the deal.
Academic text (2005) -
Will it be brought up during the lame duck session when Congress returns to work next week?
Blog text (11) -
It's a tough call on how things will actually play out in the "lame duck" session.
Blog text (24) -
We are entering the "lame-duck" session, a time when anything can happen, and usually does.
Blog text (22) -
Does anyone wonder why he has been a lame-duck president for the lion's share of his tenure?
Blog text (27) -
And again, the Democrats are missing an opportunity here to start claiming, accurately that Donald Trump is a lame duck already.
-
The president not only asked for a postelection "lame duck" session of Congress but rejected the advice of the Senate Majority Leader.
Academic text (2003) -
Liar McGinn will not triumph; he is a lame duck mayor waiting to serve out his one term.
Blog text (1) -
Now have the lame duck Prime Minister presiding over a divided party in a disunited Kingdom.
-
There's also a lame-duck session of Congress and the looming fiscal cliff to worry about.
Blog text (26)
How Powerful
15
3.2
∞
1.0
- Formal
8
4.4
- Literature
30
7.4
15
7.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
lame + duck
The compound combines 'lame' (weak/ineffective) with 'duck' used metaphorically, so a B1 learner who knows both words can probably infer a general sense of someone weak or ineffective. However, the specific political sense — an officeholder who has lost power or influence — is a conventionalized, culture-specific extension that is not fully predictable from the parts, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The noun lame duck may come from the simple image of a duck with a hurt leg: a lame duck that cannot keep up or defend itself. So, like that weak bird, a leader called a 'lame duck' is still in office but has 'lost power or influence' and cannot do much.