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Definition of "lame duck" [lame duck]

  • An elected officeholder or group continuing in office during the period between failure to win an election and the inauguration of a successor. (noun)
  • An officeholder who has chosen not to run for reelection or is ineligible for reelection. (noun)
  • An ineffective person; a weakling. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "lame duck" in a sentence
  • "A term of service in the hospice at the far edge of the town might also serve more turns than Meriet's, for Brother Mark, who tended the sick there, had been Cadfael's most valued assistant until a year or so ago, and he had recently suffered the loss of his favourite and much-indulged waif, the little boy Bran, taken into the household of Joscelin and Iveta Lucy on their marriage, and would be somewhat lost without a lame duck to cosset and care for."
  • "Thinking of him now, and then considering Renee’s lame duck — yes, I see they are a rum couple."
Words like "lame duck"