lame duck

Noun

Synonyms: lame duck

WordNet 3.0

Noun (1)

an elected official still in office but not slated to continueSynonyms: lame duck

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Lame \Lame\ (l[=a]m), a. [Compar. Lamer (l[=a]m"[~e]r); superl. Lamest.] [OE. lame, AS. lama; akin to D. lam, G. lahm, OHG., Dan., & Sw. lam, Icel. lami, Russ. lomate to break, lomota rheumatism.] 1. (a) Moving with pain or difficulty on account of injury, defect, or temporary obstruction of a function; as, a lame leg, arm, or muscle. (b) To some degree disabled by reason of the imperfect action of a limb; crippled; as, a lame man. "Lame of one leg." --Arbuthnot. "Lame in both his feet." --2 Sam. ix. 13. "He fell, and became lame." --2 Sam. iv. 4. [1913 Webster]

2.Hence, hobbling; limping; inefficient; imperfect; as, a lame answer. "A lame endeavor." --Barrow. [1913 Webster]

O, most lame and impotent conclusion!— Shak.[1913 Webster]

Lame duck (a) (Stock Exchange), a person who can not fulfill his contracts. [Cant] (b) An elected politician who is completing a term after having been defeated at an election; also, an office holder who cannot or chooses not to run again for the same office; -- So called from the presumed lack of political power of one who is soon to be out of office. (b) Any office holder who is serving out a term after a replacement has been selected. [1913 Webster +PJC]

Duck \Duck\, n. [OE. duke, doke. See Duck, v. t. ]

1.(Zool.) Any bird of the subfamily Anatin[ae], family Anatid[ae]. [1913 Webster]

Note: The genera and species are numerous. They are divided into river ducks and sea ducks. Among the former are the common domestic duck (Anas boschas); the wood duck (Aix sponsa); the beautiful mandarin duck of China (Dendronessa galeriliculata); the Muscovy duck, originally of South America (Cairina moschata). Among the sea ducks are the eider, canvasback, scoter, etc. [1913 Webster]

2.A sudden inclination of the bead or dropping of the person, resembling the motion of a duck in water. [1913 Webster]

Here be, without duck or nod, Other trippings to be trod.— Milton.[1913 Webster]

Bombay duck (Zool.), a fish. See Bummalo.

Buffel duck, Spirit duck. See Buffel duck.

Duck ant (Zool.), a species of white ant in Jamaica which builds large nests in trees.

Duck barnacle. (Zool.) See Goose barnacle.

Duck hawk. (Zool.) (a) In the United States: The peregrine falcon. (b) In England: The marsh harrier or moor buzzard.

Duck mole (Zool.), a small aquatic mammal of Australia, having webbed feet and a bill resembling that of a duck (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). It belongs the subclass Monotremata and is remarkable for laying eggs like a bird or reptile; -- called also duckbill, platypus, mallangong, mullingong, tambreet, and water mole.

To make ducks and drakes, to throw a flat stone obliquely, so as to make it rebound repeatedly from the surface of the water, raising a succession of jets; hence:

To play at ducks and drakes, with property, to throw it away heedlessly or squander it foolishly and unprofitably.

Lame duck. See under Lame. [1913 Webster]