lame duck
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An elected official still in office but not slated to continue.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
laymduhkSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈleɪmˈdʌk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
USpolitics
An elected official still in office but not slated to continue
USpolitics
An elected official who has lost the recent election or is not eligible for reelection and is marking time until leaving office.
colloquial
A person or thing that is helpless, inefficient, or disabled.
verb
informaltransitiveintransitive
To behave in the manner of a lame duck.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An elected official still in office but not slated to continue
Used this way, lame duck is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Official and authoritative
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.