English idiom

get your ducks in a row

Register · Informal CEFR C1

Post

Figurative meaning

to organize things carefully before acting

Why this phrase?

Ducks arranged in an orderly line provide an image for putting every necessary detail into order.

Example

“Get your ducks in a row before the investor meeting.”

Recorded usage

These full forms were measured in COCA in 2016–2017. Counts apply to the quoted form, not every use of this idiom; overlapping forms are not added together.

“Get your ducks in a row” — 3 recorded occurrences

Grouped source variants; editorially classified here as an idiom. Usage counts are separate from CEFR difficulty.

Dictionary details

Component words

duck

Tags

Expressions connected by reviewed component words or topic tags.

water off a duck's back

criticism that has no effect on someone

rubber duck debugging

to debug or solve a problem by explaining it line by line, out loud, to an inanimate object such as a rubber duck

easier said than done

Something that sounds simple to do but is actually hard.

for the time being

temporarily, until circumstances change

save for a rainy day

to put money aside for future emergencies

back to square one

to return to the beginning of a task after an attempt has failed

Source methodology

Meanings, register, CEFR, and examples come from the reviewed dictionary record. Expression notes may describe a reviewed present-day word picture or a background note; they are not presented as verified etymology.

External links

markdown