dead duck
noun1
Idiomatic One who is in serious danger or trouble.
- She's a dead duck if she starts flirting with my boyfriend!
2
Idiomatic A project that is doomed to failure from the start.
- The government decision meant that the proposed boycott of South African goods was a dead duck.
- The "most important suburban line—to Clifton Down, Avonmouth Dock and Severn Beach" has, I fear, been a dead duck for years. (It still exists in 2021)1962 June, “Letters to the Editor: Diesel suburban services in Bristol”, in Modern Railways, page 430:
1 more example
- They may have finished 11 points behind West Ham and lost both league games, conceding eight goals, but the Tangerine dream remains alive. Holloway said: “We won’t get a bigger test than West Ham but we’ve got one chance. If you’d asked me last summer when I lost all those players I’d have said this was a dead duck, but we don’t lie down at this club.”2012 May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2–3 on agg): match report”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 08 Apr 2016:
- Synonyms
- shark bait
- Related terms
- lame duck, sitting duck