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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
dead duck
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Competition climbing is laughable in this country, and is probably a dead duck anyway.
▪ In April Harold Wilson admitted what everyone else already knew: the Bill was a dead duck.
▪ Recruiting outsiders is a dead duck for the moment; another five years of failure and the time may yet come.
▪ Whether voters are bored, confused or scared of losing popular services, it seems to be a dead duck.
Wiktionary
dead duck

n. 1 (context idiomatic English) One who is in serious danger or trouble. 2 (context idiomatic English) A project that is doomed to failure from the start.

WordNet
dead duck

n. something doomed to failure; "he finally admitted that the legislation was a dead duck"; "the idea of another TV channel is now a dead duck"; "as theories go, that's a dead duck"

Usage examples of "dead duck".

Again,, as President, he has to give a lead to the nation-if he refused to eat while his oil friends did, he'd be a dead duck at the next election.

If I gave it more than another five minutes on board this rig they'd have a dead duck.

Butcher Bird, I'll bet y'father was a dead duck an' your mother was a half-shot cuckoo!

Whoever had shot at me must have figured I was a dead duck, because he just let me lay.

No one can make a dead duck go 'quack' any more than a dead person can be made to speak.

He was awakened before dawn, not by Avatre, but by a dead duck falling on his head.