lame duck

plural lame ducks · alternative lame-duck · alternative lameduck

1. colloquialA person or thing that is helpless, inefficient, or disabled.

   Reflecting on this in our 800th issue seven years ago, RAIL said the broad government view in 1981 was that BR [British Rail] was a lame duck.

   2024 January 10, Howard Johnston, “Launched for enthusiasts - now it's for everyone”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 28

   2 more examples

   Thus is happens, that, when a considerable loss arises from such contract, the principal on whole behalf it was made, refuses to fulfil it; in this case, the loss falls upon the broker, without remedy; and if he does not fulfil the contract in default of his prinicipal, he foreits his credit and business, and becomes, in the cant of the Alley, a lame duck.

   1763 January, anonymous author, The Gentleman's and London Magazine, page 288

   A few days after our dinner at the Albion, Glover's city speculations, in spite of his unceasing attention in watching the marker, went altogether wrong, and the poor fellow waddled away from Chapel Court a defaulter, or as the stock-brokers emphatically called it, a lame duck.

   1825, Ned Clinton; or The Commissary, page 186

2. USgovernmentAn elected official who has lost the recent election or is not eligible for reelection and is marking time until leaving office.

   Congressman Jones was a lame duck and did not vote on many issues that were important to his constituents.

   3 more examples

   This is a lame duck administration, and if it is going to pass out political favors worth multimillions of dollars per year, it must move.

   1968 October 3, Congressional Record, page 29513, column 2

   The “lame duck” Johnson Administration, in its final fortnight in office, grappled last week with a diplomatic hot potato in the form of the latest Soviet proposal for a “just and lasting” Middle East peace settlement.

   1969 January 12, Benjamin Welles, “A Hot Potato for Nixon”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   So it is quite possible that there will be a Biden bounce in the last six months of his presidency, even if he is a lame duck. The question is, what will he do with it?

   2024 July 22, Ed Pilkington, “Can lame duck Joe Biden give legs to Harris campaign in final six months?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

3. datedslangbusinessA person who cannot fulfill their contracts.

   Synonyms: duck

4. computingA server that continues to serve ongoing requests while refusing new ones, allowing for graceful shutdown.

present singular third person lame ducks · participle present lame ducking · participle past lame ducked · past lame ducked · alternative lame-duck · alternative lameduck

1. informalintransitivetransitiveTo behave in the manner of a lame duck.