lame duck

1. Someone or something that needs help. The company started as a lame duck that was saved by an innovative entrepreneur who decided to take some risks and go in a new direction.

2. An elected official serving his or her last term in office, usually so-called after a successor has been elected. The opposing party was angry at the president's intention to name a Supreme Court replacement while he was a lame duck.

See also: duck, lame

lame duck

1. Fig. someone who is in the last period of a term in an elective office and cannot run for reelection. You can't expect much from a lame duck. As a lame duck, there's not a lot I can do.

2. Fig. having to do with someone in the last period of a term in an elective office. (Used as an adjective; sometimes lame-duck.) You don't expect much from a lame-duck president. Lame-duck Congresses tend to do things they wouldn't dare do otherwise.

See also: duck, lame

lame duck

An elected officeholder whose term of office has not yet expired but who has failed to be re-elected and therefore cannot garner much political support for initiatives. For example, You can't expect a lame duck President to get much accomplished; he's only got a month left in office . This expression originated in the 1700s and then meant a stockbroker who did not meet his debts. It was transferred to officeholders in the 1860s. The Lame Duck Amendment, 20th to the U.S. Constitution, calls for Congress and each new President to take office in January instead of March (as before), thereby eliminating the lame-duck session of Congress.

See also: duck, lame

lame duck

1. n. someone who is in the last period of a term in an elective office. You can’t expect much from a lame duck.

2. mod. having to do with someone in the last period of a term in an elective office. You don’t expect much from a lame duck president.

See also: duck, lame

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Celia	SEEL-yə (English), SEE-lee-ə (English), THE-lyah (Spanish), SE-lyah (Latin American Spanish), CHE-lyah (Italian)	English, Spanish, Italian
Varfolomey	-	Russian (Rare)
Haru	hah-ṙoo	Japanese
SinÉAd	shi-NAYD	Irish
Crawford	['krɔfəd]
Leto	-	Greek Mythology