lame
help a lame dog over a stile
obsolete To help or assist someone in need in some fundamental or basic way. He has so much money that it would be no effort at all for him to help a lame dog over a stile, but the man is adamant that not a penny of his fortune be used toward charity of any kind.
See also: dog, help, lame, over
lame
1. Not at all cool, trendy, or fashionable; undesirable or unlikable. I know you think it's lame to get dropped off to school by your mom each morning, but I'm not letting you walk the whole way on your own. All kids come to think their parents are lame at some point or another, and you're fooling yourself if you think you're going to be the exception.
2. Utterly weak, ineffectual, or inept; completely unimpressive or incompetent. With such lame special effects and a cookie-cutter plot, the movie was a complete waste of time.
lame duck
1. Someone or something that needs help. The company started as a lame duck that was saved by an innovative entrepreneur who decided to take some risks and go in a new direction.
2. An elected official serving their last term in office, usually so-called after a successor has been elected. The opposing party was angry at the president's intention to name a Supreme Court replacement while he was a lame duck.
See also: duck, lame
lame joke
A joke that is deemed (often by the listener) to be corny or otherwise not amusing. A: "Come on, isn't that funny?" B: "It's kind of a lame joke, Mom." My date clearly thinks he's hilarious, but all I heard was a bunch of lame jokes.
See also: joke, lame
lamebrain
1. adjective Utterly foolish or poorly thought out. He's always got some lamebrain scheme to get rich.
2. noun A fool, idiot, or buffoon. I heard that lamebrain Terry cost us yet another client with the idiotic things he says.
lamebrained
Utterly foolish or poorly thought out. He's always got some lamebrained scheme to get rich.
See also: lamebrain
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
lame duck
1. Fig. someone who is in the last period of a term in an elective office and cannot run for reelection. You can't expect much from a lame duck. As a lame duck, there's not a lot I can do.
2. Fig. having to do with someone in the last period of a term in an elective office. (Used as an adjective; sometimes lame-duck.) You don't expect much from a lame-duck president. Lame-duck Congresses tend to do things they wouldn't dare do otherwise.
See also: duck, lame
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
lame duck
An elected officeholder whose term of office has not yet expired but who has failed to be re-elected and therefore cannot garner much political support for initiatives. For example, You can't expect a lame duck President to get much accomplished; he's only got a month left in office . This expression originated in the 1700s and then meant a stockbroker who did not meet his debts. It was transferred to officeholders in the 1860s. The Lame Duck Amendment, 20th to the U.S. Constitution, calls for Congress and each new President to take office in January instead of March (as before), thereby eliminating the lame-duck session of Congress.
See also: duck, lame
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
a lame duck
COMMON
1. If a politician or a government is a lame duck, they have little real power, for example because their period of office is coming to an end. The government is headed by a president who looks like a lame duck. The last thing people needed was to feel that the government was a lame duck. Note: You can also use lame-duck before a noun. He's already seen widely as a lame-duck Prime Minister. He would have found himself leading a lame-duck administration to near-certain defeat.
2. If someone or something is a lame duck, they are in a very weak position and in need of support. The company has completed its transformation from the lame duck of the motor industry into a quality car maker. Moira considers all single people lame ducks. Note: You can also use lame-duck before a noun. It is not right to use taxpayers' money to support lame-duck industries. Note: This expression is usually used to criticize someone or something. Note: The image here is of a duck that has been shot and wounded, and so cannot move properly and is likely to die.
See also: duck, lame
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
help a lame dog over a stile
come to the aid of a person in need.See also: dog, help, lame, over
lame duck
a person or thing that is powerless or in need of help. informalIn the mid 18th century, lame duck was used in a stock-market context, with reference to a person or company that could not fulfil their financial obligations. Later, from the mid 19th century, it was used specifically with reference to US politicians in the final period of office, after the election of their successor.
1998 Spectator At some point in his second and final term, every president becomes a lame duck: as the man himself matters less, so does the office.
See also: duck, lame
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
a ˌlame ˈduck
(informal) a person or an organization that is not very successful and needs help: My uncle is a bit of a lame duck. The family has to help him all the time. The shipping industry had become a lame duck.See also: duck, lame
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
lame
and laine and lane1. mod. inept; inadequate; undesirable. That guy’s so lame, it’s pitiful.
2. n. a square person. (Streets. Underworld.) Let’s see if that lame over there has anything we want in his pockets.
3. n. an inept person. The guy turned out to be a lame, and we had to fire him.
lame duck
1. n. someone who is in the last period of a term in an elective office. You can’t expect much from a lame duck.
2. mod. having to do with someone in the last period of a term in an elective office. You don’t expect much from a lame duck president.
See also: duck, lame
lamebrain
and lame-brain1. n. a fool. Please don’t call me a lamebrain. I do my best.
2. and lamebrained mod. foolish. No more of your lamebrained ideas!
lame-brain
verbSee lamebrain
lamebrained
verbSee lamebrain
See also: lamebrain
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
lame duck, a
A person finishing a term of office, employment, or other engagement, and soon to be supplanted by another. This term had quite another meaning in eighteenth-century Britain. Then it denoted a stock-exchange jobber (broker) who could not pay his debts and therefore was struck from the members’ list, forced to “waddle away” from the Exchange. In the nineteenth century, however, the term began to be used for any ineffectual person, on both sides of the Atlantic. Some decades thereafter it began to be used in its present meaning in the United States, that is, for government officials who have failed to be reelected but must serve out their term of office, even though their endeavors are hampered because they are about to be replaced.
See also: lame
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- help a lame dog over a stile
- helping
- assist
- help (someone) on
- help on
- help on with
- help (someone) on with (something)
- clutch
- drown
- a drowning man will clutch at a straw