sitting duck

American  

noun

1. a helpless or easy target or victim.

   a sitting duck for shady financial schemes.

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sitting duck Cultural  

1. A very easy target: “His arguments were so simple, she was able to knock them down like sitting ducks.” The term comes from hunting, where it is much easier to hit ducks when they are sitting on the water than when they are in flight.

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sitting duck Idioms  

1. An easy target, as in If you park in front of a fire hydrant, you're a sitting duck for a ticket. This term alludes to the ease with which a hunter can shoot a duck that remains in one spot, in contrast to one in flight. [First half of 1900s]

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Etymology

Origin of sitting duck

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

All the time, Stern feared his boat was a sitting duck for Venezuelan security forces.

From The Wall Street Journal

Marked up under his right eye, Yarde was not quite a sitting duck yet but was not winning rounds either - perhaps guilty of showing the champion too much respect.

From BBC

Nestled between two mountains, the village of Fudai was a sitting duck for an incoming wave.

From Literature

“I knew I was a bit of a sitting duck if I wasn’t careful,” she said.

From The Wall Street Journal

But, Mr Neill points out, some in the Western defence community are increasingly arguing that these strike groups are vulnerable, as they are effectively "sitting ducks" for any missile attacks.

From BBC

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