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

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 his or her 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 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

a lame duck

 
1. a person or company that is in trouble and needs help In under two years, it was transformed from a state-owned lame duck into a successful company.
2. someone, especially an elected official, who cannot influence events any more, often because their job is going to end soon The Mayor intends to run for re-election to avoid being thought of as a lame duck. (mainly American)
See also: duck, lame

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

lame

and laine and lane
1. 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-brain
1. 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

verb

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Aili-Finnish
Toya-American (Hispanic)
SylviaSIL-vee-ə (English), SUYL-vee-ah (Finnish)English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German
Aonghus-Irish, Scottish, Irish Mythology
IoIE-o (English), EE-o (English)Greek Mythology
FrÍ&Eth;A-Ancient Scandinavian, Icelandic