Meaning
A task that is extremely easy to do; something requiring little or no skill or effort, on a par with 'a piece of cake' or 'a cinch'. An American slang term, usually predicative: the exam was duck soup, the job was duck soup. Humorous, mid-century-flavored slang; fine for a retro or comic tone. Do not confuse with 'sitting duck', a vulnerable target - a different idea entirely. Regional use: American English.
Origin
American slang whose exact derivation is unknown - the Word Detective, cited in a Phrase Finder thread, says research soon runs aground on a simple lack of evidence, and proposals such as ducks being easy to shoot or greasy duck broth remain speculation. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, quoted there, records the first appearance in a 1902 newspaper cartoon by T. A. Dorgan, then an H. C. Fisher cartoon of 1908; Etymonline dates the slang, meaning anything easily done, by 1899, slightly earlier. The Marx Brothers' film Duck Soup, released by Paramount on 17 November 1933, took its title from the existing slang - the director Leo McCarey had already used it for a 1927 Laurel and Hardy short - and plainly boosted it; asked to explain the title, Groucho gave a joke recipe ending 'After one taste, you'll duck soup for the rest of your life.'
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- duck-soup (adjective)
- easy as duck soup
- pure duck soup
Usage Examples
- For anyone who has run a mailroom, the new sorting contract was duck soup - twenty minutes and done.
- The written exam was duck soup compared with the practical test, which half the class failed.
- Do not call the data migration duck soup until the legacy records have actually loaded clean.