duck soup

American  

noun

1. something that is easy to do or accomplish.

   Fixing the car will be duck soup for anyone with the right tools.

---

duck soup British  

noun

1. slang something that is easy to do

---

duck soup Idioms  

1. An easily accomplished task or assignment, a cinch to succeed, as in Fixing this car is going to be duck soup. This expression gained currency as the title of a hilarious popular movie by the Marx Brothers (1933). The original allusion has been lost. [Early 1900s]

---

Etymology

Origin of duck soup

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

For Marx, making the transition from actress to wife of a great movie star was duck soup.

From Washington Post

“Are people reading because they don’t have friends?” she asked between mouthfuls of duck soup, sounding genuinely puzzled.

From New York Times

If you fear heat, the unctuous duck soup or the gamy “braised pork stomach with chicken soup” are among the alternatives.

From Seattle Times

There is a final canard to add to our duck soup: that comic novels are generally “light” or “escapist”.

From The Guardian

Famously he promised Patterson that determining the age of the Earth with his new method would be "duck soup."

From Literature