E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Ducks and Drakes.
The ricocheting or rebounding of a stone thrown from the hand to skim along the surface of a pond or river.
1
To make ducks and drakes of one’s money. To throw it away as stones with which “ducks and drakes” are made on water. The allusion is to the sport of throwing stones to skim over water for the sake of seeing them ricocheting or rebounding.
“What figured slates are best to make
On watery surface duck and drake.”
2
Butler: Hudibras, ii. 3.
“Mr. Locke Harper found out, a month after his marriage, that somebody had made ducks and drakes of his wife’s money.”—Dinah M. Craik: Agatha’s Husband, chap. xxiii.
