dead duck | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)One who is in seriousdangerortrouble.Synonym:dead meatShe's adead duckif she starts flirting with my boyfriend!; (idiomatic)A project that isdoomedto failure from the start.The government decision meant that the proposed boycott of South African goods was adead duck.1962June, “Letters to the Editor: Diesel suburban services in Bristol”, inModern Railways, page430:The "most important suburban line—to Clifton Down, Avonmouth Dock and Severn Beach" has, I fear, been adead duckfor years.(It still exists in 2021)2012May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2–3 on agg): match report”, inThe Daily Telegraph‎[1], London, archived fromthe originalon8 April 2016: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 adead duck, but we don’t lie down at this club.”

Examples:

EN: It's Latin for "he opened the door and in flew a dead duck."
ES: Quiere decir "él abrió la puerta y tiró un pato muerto".
EN: You can't even shoot a dead duck... and when you go out hunting, people have to duck.
ES: Tú no le das ni a un pato muerto y cuando sales a cazar, la gente tiene que andar agachada.
EN: King Bombo, Say the word and the giant is a dead duck.
ES: Rey Bombo, no tenéis más que dar la orden y el gigante estará acabado.
EN: ..is a dead duck.
ES: "El gigante estará acabado".
EN: The giant will be a dead duck. Ha!
ES: Terminaremos con el gigante...
EN: He's already a dead duck or he wouldn't need the fifty. And he's spent it, you're both free from hunger. So what?
ES: Y cuando vaya a morir no los necesitará y se los gastará y los dos moriríais de hambre. ¿Y qué?
EN: - I'm a dead duck.
ES: - Soy hombre muerto.
EN: Either way, I'm a dead duck.
ES: Bueno, me verá en el juicio, ¿no?
EN: Bale out, boys, we're in a dead duck.
ES: Salten, muchachos, este pato está muerto.
EN: My customers start thinking about home and mother, I'm a dead duck.
ES: Si mis clientes piensan en hogar y madres, estoy perdido.
EN: - He's a dear, and I'm a dead duck.
ES: - ¿Encantador has dicho?
EN: Without that penguin, I'm a dead duck!
ES: Sin él, ¡estoy muerto!
EN: He'd challenge a dead duck. He's in the back room with the mob, spoiling for a brawl.
ES: En la trastienda, con los otros y con ganas de pelear.
EN: Looks like I'm a dead duck.
ES: Me parece que estoy frito.
EN: If them Cottons get hold of me, I'm a dead duck It ain't gonna be no good to say sorry
ES: Señor, si esos Cotton me atrapan seré un pato muerto, eso es. Y no estaré en condiciones de decir "lo siento".

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).