Albatross
WordNet
noun
(1) Large web-footed birds of the southern hemisphere having long narrow wings; noted for powerful gliding flight
(2) (figurative) something that hinders or handicaps
"She was an albatross around his neck"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
An alteration of word , under influence of the word ; comes from .
- The "long-term impediment" sense is derived from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, from the seabird.
Noun
- Any of various large seabirds of the family Diomedeidae ranging widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific and having a hooked beak and long narrow wings.
- A double eagle, or three under par on any one hole
- A long-term impediment, burden, or curse.
- 2006 March 13, Richard Lugar, speech to the Brookings Institution,
- energy is the albatross of U.S. national security.
- 2006 March 13, Richard Lugar, speech to the Brookings Institution,