Synonyms for lame duck

Grammar : Noun

Définition of lame duck

Origin : 1761, "any disabled person or thing;" especially Stock Exchange slang for "defaulter."
A lame duck is a man who cannot pay his differences, and is said to waddle off. [Thomas Love Peacock, "Gryll Grange," 1861]
Sometimes also in naval use for "an old, slow ship." Modern sense of "public official serving out term after an election" is recorded by 1878 in American English, from an anecdote published in that year of President Lincoln, who is alleged to have said, "[A] senator or representative out of business is a sort of lame duck. He has to be provided for."

noun elected official waiting to leave office

Example sentences :

My sisters could no more do what you do than a lame duck can lead a ballet.
Extract from : « The Forester's Daughter » by Hamlin Garland

For that matter, there isnt one of us that hasnt a lame duck of some sort.
Extract from : « The Last of the Flatboats » by George Cary Eggleston

They have been through the furnace of affliction—even that lame duck.
Extract from : « Averil » by Rosa Nouchette Carey

I guess, after all, he's only a 'lame duck,' like a good many of the rest of them.
Extract from : « The Real Man » by Francis Lynde

He'll have to take a lame duck or go out of his circle for a wife.
Extract from : « The Streets of Ascalon » by Robert W. Chambers

This is the lame duck, mother, but it's different from the one we danced last year.
Extract from : « Life and Gabriella » by Ellen Glasgow

At a glance he recognized the Thunderbolt, notoriously the lame duck of the Reds, lagging three or four miles behind the rest.
Extract from : « Round the World in Seven Days » by Herbert Strang

"We agreed to forget the yesterday incidents," the lame duck reminded him quickly.
Extract from : « The Real Man » by Francis Lynde

Lame duck, a stockjobber who speculates beyond his capital, and cannot pay his losses.
Extract from : « The Slang Dictionary » by John Camden Hotten

The Regent aggravated that distress by frauds of which a lame duck on the stock-exchange would have been ashamed.
Extract from : « The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4) » by Thomas Babington Macaulay

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Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019