sitting duck

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

sitting duck (plural sitting ducks)

1. (idiomatic) An obvious, vulnerable target.

   For God's sake, Sergeant, we need to get to cover – we're sitting ducks out here.

   • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

     Joker: We're sitting ducks out here. I have to try to lose them in the debris field!

   • 2023 February 13, Andrew E. Kramer, “‘Our Losses Were Gigantic’: Life in a Sacrificial Russian Assault Wave”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The soldiers were sitting ducks, sent forth by Russian commanders to act essentially as human cannon fodder in an assault.

Synonyms

• easy mark, easy target

Translations

an obvious, vulnerable target

• Bulgarian: ле́сна пля́чка f (lésna pljáčka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 活靶子 (huóbǎzi)

• Finnish: maalitaulu (fi)
• French: cible facile f
• German: leichte Beute f, leichtes Ziel n
• Hungarian: könnyű célpont (hu), könnyű préda, gyerekjáték eltalálni
• Italian: bersaglio facile m, facile preda f
• Japanese: いい鴨 (iikamo)
• Malagasy: tanjona (mg)
• Polish: łatwy cel m, łatwa zdobycz f
• Portuguese: presa fácil f
• Romanian: pradă ușoară f, țintă facilă f
• Russian: удо́бная ми́шень f (udóbnaja míšenʹ), лёгкая цель f (ljóxkaja celʹ)
• Spanish: blanco fácil m, presa fácil f, pato de feria m
• Swedish: lätt offer
• Thai: เป้านิ่ง (bpâo-nîng)

See also

• dead duck
• lame duck