lame duck

1. 1.

   an elected official still in office but not slated to continue

   Broaderelected official

Questions about lame duck

What does lame duck mean?

lame duck means "an elected official still in office but not slated to continue".

Is lame duck a common word?

lame duck is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.