ducks and drakes

English
Stone skimming

Etymology

1585, due to association with waterfowl. The precise origin is unclear, and may be from ducks taking off from a pond, or making rings when splashing, or bobbing their heads. Early references are primarily to “making” ducks and drakes, suggesting that the circular rings produced by the skipping stone resemble those created by splashing waterfowl.

Sense “to squander, to throw away” shortly thereafter, attested 1614, from sense of “throwing money away, as if throwing stones away in this pastime”.

Noun

ducks and drakes (uncountable)

  1. A pastime of throwing flat stones across water so as to make them bounce off the surface.
    • 1585, The nomenclator, or remembrancer of Adrianus Junius, John Higgins:
      A kind of sport or play with an oister shell or stone throwne into the water, and making circles yer it sinke, etc. It is called a ducke and a drake, and a halfe-penie cake.[1]
    • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 7”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
      They sat on a pebbly bank. Suddenly he caught sight of a nice flat stone, and, jumping up, began to make ducks and drakes on the water.
  2. (idiomatic, informal) The squandering of resources, especially money; used in expressions such as "to make ducks and drakes of", "to play (at) ducks and drakes with".
    • 1614, James Cooke, Tu Quoque:
      This royal Caesar doth regard no cash; Has thrown away as much in ducks and drakes As would have bought some 50,000 capons.
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 59, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      Pendennis’s uncle, the Major, seldom does anything without me; and as he is likely to be extravagant we’ve tied up the property, so that he can’t make ducks and drakes with it.
    • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
      He soon made ducks and drakes of what I gave him, sank lower and lower, married another woman, I believe, became an adventurer, a gambler, and a cheat.

Synonyms

Derived terms
  • to play ducks and drakes with
  • to make ducks and drakes of one's money
  • drakestone (a flat stone suitable for skimming across water).

Translations

References
  1. Regarding this last line, “a ducke and a drake, and a halfe-penie cake”, compare the nursery rhyme:

    A duck and a drake,
    And a halfpenny cake,
    With a penny to pay the old baker.
    A hop and a scotch
    Is another notch,
    Slitherum, slatherum, take her.

Further reading
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