like water off a duck's back

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (file)

Prepositional phrase[edit]

like water off a duck's back

  1. (simile, colloquial, idiomatic) Without immediate or lasting effects.
    • 1919, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 18, in Rainbow Valley:
      "She combs me down with her tongue sometimes though, but that just slips off me like water off a duck's back."
    • 2009 January 2, Jan Espeut, “The honeymoon is over”, in Jamaica Gleaner, retrieved 20 Jan. 2009:
      Scandal after scandal would break, but it would be like water off a duck's back; no heads rolled, and no one seemed particularly perturbed.

Usage notes[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  • “Like water off a duck's back”, in BBC Learning English[1], BBC, 28 October 2014