dead duck
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A person or thing that is doomed or hopeless
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
một người hoặc điều gì đó bị định đoạt hoặc tuyệt vọng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a duck that is dead
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The project is a dead duck due to lack of funding
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “dead duck” mean?
A person or thing that is doomed or hopeless Literally: a duck that is dead
Is “dead duck” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.