VOCABULARY - IDIOMS

A Lame Duck

Meaning:

A person or enterprise (often a business) that is not a success and that has to be (helped.

Examples:

  • Mr President, renewable energy has been something of a lame duck in the Community.
  • Inevitably the interim Commission will be perceived as a lame duck - but sometimes lame ducks can surprise us.
  • For years, experts have been saying that the European budget is inflexible, that this is what renders the European Union a lame duck.
  • These activities have undermined the impartiality of the office of the President of the Commission and have ensured that the Commission has come to be seen as something of a lame duck.
  • The labor crisis is one issue where Gov. Calderón's status as a lame duck government is a distinctive advantage, rather than, as usually is the case, a liability.
  • I know that things are difficult at the moment in Spain because a minister is being questioned and the government is a lame duck, but there will soon be another government and, with this, a new hope.
  • As you said yesterday in Le Monde, in the worst case scenario, we still have a few months to wait and I think that nobody in this House can tolerate the fact that the Union will be a lame duck in the months to come.