land in someone's lap

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To be given or fall into someone's responsibility or possession unexpectedly

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Được giao hoặc rơi vào trách nhiệm hoặc sở hữu của ai đó một cách bất ngờ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: an object landing in a person's lap
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The project landed in my lap when the manager quit

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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “land in someone's lap” mean?

To be given or fall into someone's responsibility or possession unexpectedly Literally: an object landing in a person's lap

Is “land in someone's lap” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.