Albatross    (pronounced al-buh-traws or al-buh-tros) noun


Definition

1. a constant burden, in the form of guilt or anxiety, or one that causes endless distress or frustration. 2. something that hampers action, progress, or success; an encumbrance.

Main Example

  • According to recent polls, over 80% of Americans are opposed to a hasty withdrawal of troops from Iraq but, at the same time, they are worried that we may not be able to get out of that nation easily and that Iraq will become a Vietnam-like albatross.

    Workplace Examples

  • Our overly ambitious sales target is crushing morale. If we don't lower our sights and make the goal more realistic, it will become an albatross around our necks for the rest of the year.

  • Have you noticed how Celia's perfectionist nature becomes a sort of albatross for her in deadline situations, especially when she is required to make quick decisions?

    Other Examples

  • your confiding to a colleague: "I'm glad Richard is reporting to someone else instead of me. He is pretty hard to manage and so, rather than being an asset, he would be more of an albatross."

  • a company getting rid of some of its albatrosses by, for instance, firing an employee who had become a source of public controversy, and selling a business that consistently lost money and diverted management attention from profitable enterprises

  • an unexecutable campaign promise becoming an albatross for a politician; a job applicant whose resume boasts a string of degrees and several prized assignments finding her top-notch credentials to be an albatross around her neck because prospective employers see her as being vastly overqualified

  • the startling news from demographers in India that because of the evil dowry system which compels most parents to view the birth of a girl as an albatross, perhaps a million female fetuses have been aborted since the time that ultrasound became widely available

    © 2004 V.J. Singal

    This Month's Other Words

    Frisson
    Lacerating
    Exalted and Exaltation
    Revulsion
    Bastion
    Draconian
    Implacable

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