Meaning of lame duck | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A person or thing that is helpless, inefficient, or disabled.
   colloquial
2. An elected official who has lost the recent election or is not eligible for reelection and is marking time until leaving office.
   US
3. A person who cannot fulfill their contracts.
   dated, slang
4. A server that continues to serve ongoing requests while refusing new ones, allowing for graceful shutdown.

Equivalents

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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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?”

CEFR level