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View synonyms for dead duck

dead duck

noun

  1. a person or thing that is beyond help, redemption, or hope:

    One more missed opportunity and this whole enterprise is a dead duck.



dead duck

noun

  1. slang.
    a person or thing doomed to death, failure, etc, esp because of a mistake or misjudgment


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Word History and Origins

Origin of dead duck1

An Americanism dating back to 1820–30; originally, in political slang, a person who has lost influence or power and is therefore useless; perhaps from the proverb “never waste powder on a dead duck”

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Example Sentences

They cannot easily reorient those commitments now: Perry may be a dead duck, but he refuses to acknowledge it.

The Obama-Brown stimulus is a dead duck before the G-20 even meets.

I glided forward, and came near shooting the Quartermaster, who sat in a bunch of sedge-grass, with a dead duck by his side.

The little man got a long stick, and, reaching it out, drew the dead duck to the bank.

We wasted half an hour fussing over that dead duck down under, and now I'm expected to go rubbin' my back all round the Pole.

We wasted an hour and a quarter over that dead duck down under, and now I'm expected to go rubbin' my back all round the Pole.

I have occasionally found a dead duck beneath the ice or floating in the water of a salt-hole.

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