clay pigeon

See synonyms for clay pigeon on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Trapshooting, Skeet. a disk of baked clay or other material hurled into the air from a trap as a target.

  2. Slang. a person in a situation likely to be taken advantage of by others.

Origin of clay pigeon

1
An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

Words Nearby clay pigeon

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use clay pigeon in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for clay pigeon

clay pigeon

noun
  1. a disc of baked clay hurled into the air from a machine as a target to be shot at

  2. US slang a person in a defenceless position; sitting duck

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with clay pigeon

clay pigeon

A person easily duped or taken advantage of, as in You're a clay pigeon for all of those telephone fund-raisers. The term alludes to the clay pigeon of trapshooting, which replaced the use of live birds in this sport in the 1860s. Its transfer to figurative use in the first half of the 1900s probably is explained by the much older slang use of pigeon for “dupe.” Also see fall guy.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.