sitting duck
Use Sitting duck in a sentenceAds
Watch Sitting Ducks movies.netflix.com/SittingDucks Free Trial. Watch Instantly. TV Shows & Movies anytime anywhere
Dictionary.com's Mobile Apps www.dictionary.com/mobile Ad-Free, Offline Content, Audio Pronunciation and More! Take Millions of Words With You Everywhere. Download Now!
sitting duck
noun
a helpless or easy target or victim: a sitting duck for shady financial schemes.
Origin:
1940–45
1940–45
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To sitting duck
American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary
sitting duck definition
A very easy target: “His arguments were so simple, she was able to knock them down like sitting ducks.” The term comes from hunting, where it is much easier to hit ducks when they are sitting on the water than when they are in flight.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
00:10
Sitting duck
is always a great word to know.
So is gobo. Does it mean:
| a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare. |
| a fool or simpleton; ninny. |
Slang Dictionary
sitting duck definition
|
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases
sitting duck
An easy target, as in If you park in front of a fire hydrant, you're a sitting duck for a ticket. This term alludes to the ease with which a hunter can shoot a duck that remains in one spot, in contrast to one in flight. [First half of 1900s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Example sentences
However, there is nothing lucky about becoming a sitting duck while stopped behind traffic at a light.
He heard them shouting as he stood in the backfield last year, a sitting duck in shoulder pads.
We can't be a sitting duck at the checkpoint with the same processes.
Without that gun, he could have been yet another sitting duck.
Nearby Words
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
