# lame duck

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A person or thing that is helpless, inefficient, or disabled.
2. An elected official who has lost the recent election or is not eligible for reelection and is marking time until leaving office.
3. A person who cannot fulfill their contracts.
4. A server that continues to serve ongoing requests while refusing new ones, allowing for graceful shutdown.

## Etymology
Equivalent to lame + duck. First use appears c. 1761, in the London Evening Post. Derived from the situation in which a person who had defaulted in the London Stock Exchange was said to waddle out of Exchange Alley like a lame duck. Verbal form first appears c. 1910.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-09-03.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/lame-duck