duck soup n.
(US)1. complete destruction; a vulnerable target; usu. as make duck soup (of).
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Mountain Democrat (Placerville, CA) 8 Nov. 4(?)/2: In surgery and medicine the above title is given to treatment which if it fails to cure is bound to kill the patient. In the latter case it is liable to also make duck soup of the practitioner’s reputation. | |
| Generation of Vipers 262: ‘Right dress’ makes a convoy duck soup for the ‘Browning shot’. | |
 | Retreat, Hell! 52: ‘e could take those slant-eyed little sons-a-bitches [...]’ ‘Yeah. Our Navy would make duck soup of ’em’. | |
| Popular Mechanics Aug. 94: When shifted from two-wheel to four-wheel drive, car can make duck soup of soft sand. | |
| Firebrand 39: Rand stifled a grin. Lucy would make duck soup of a fellow like Philip Ascot. |
2. anything simple, easy.
| Chicago Daily Trib. 10: Brady [...] said: ‘It has now come to an issue where every man must show his colors. I am out of the business and so this fight is duck soup for me.’. | |
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 35: Attorney Shortribs announced that it would be duck soup to clear their client. | |
| Treat ’Em Rough 23: Then they give us an hour of drilling and that was duck soup for me on acct. of the drilling we done on the ball club last spring. | |
| ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 36: It was going to be duck soup — yeh! Eggs in the coffee — yeh! | |
| ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 98: Taking five grand from Blondy is duck soup. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Walk in Sun 82: They’d be duck soup for the tanks. Even one tank [...] could come up over one of the hills and be on them before they’d have time to scatter. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 197: ‘Duck soup,’ said Louis, laughing a little. | |
| One Lonely Night 117: I was duck soup there in that room with my back toward him. | |
| Cool Man 44: He’d been found asleep in bed with one of his girl friends. Duck soup, the lucky cop thought. | |
| (con. 1968) Reckoning for Kings (1989) 413: You never dug up a lawn? This is fuckin’ duck soup. | |
| Sl. and Sociability 70: Banana factory was a ‘hectic, horrible, or futile situation’, and duck soup was ‘something easy’. |
3. a guaranteed success.
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 10: I got a hunch that ‘Como’ is duck soup for the 6th. |
4. something that suits one perfectly.
| ‘The Defence of Strikerville’ in From First To Last (1954) 13: This is duck soup for us all. | |
| ‘Pics’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 254: I rise to nominate one who, though frequently pooh-poohed, is nevertheless duck-soup for this situation. | |
| ‘The Bloodhounds of Broadway’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 96: It [...] will be duck soup for the newspapers. | |
| Female Convict (1960) 106: It was duck soup for those hardboiled convicts. | |
| USA Confidential 168: It is duck-soup for sailors, where young victory girls flock in volume and open their arms, etc., to anything in blues. |
5. of a person, easily persuaded or victimized.
| ‘A Tale of two Fists’ XV in Pittsburgh Press (PA) 16 May 31/1: ‘I was certainly duck soup for boxers in the training camps, because they could knock me about as they pleased ’. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 262: The average thief is duck soup for the hockshop man. | |
| Bruiser 104: I’ll take him on right now [...] Them big yaps are duck soup for me. |
6. something strange; as in phr. queer as duck soup.
| Never Come Morning (2001) 174: I hope he knows what he’s doin’ is all [...] It looked queer as duck soup t’ me. |