Slang and Idioms 05: Ducks

Today we are going to look at a few idiomatic expressions that use the word 'duck.' 

A common way of saying that you don't let someone's comments or criticism bother you is to say, "It's just water off a duck's back." A politician who doesn't care what the media says about him might say that the criticism rolled off him like water off a duck's back. If someone is very easy to criticize or attack, we say that he is a sitting duck.

Have you ever met someone who learns something very quickly and enjoys it at the same time? When I first started studying French, I took to learning French like a duck to water. The expression to take to something like a duck to water means that you discover you are naturally good at it and you find it very easy to do. To be duck soup is an American expression to say that whatever it is you are doing, you find it to be very, very easy. For me, learning French in high school was duck soup.

My mother is a very organized person, she always has her ducks in a row. This is an American expression and one my mother often uses. To have your ducks in a row simply means to be someone who is very organized. If you want to say that you are in the process of organizing, you'd say, "I'm getting my ducks in a row."

Another uniquely American expression might be heard during this election period to describe President Bush. You might hear him referred to as a lame-duck president. The word 'lame' means unable to walk properly due to pain or injury. Here lame duck refers to any elected official who can no longer really influence events because his or her job is ending soon. This is not a derogatory expression.