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Citation Information
How to Cite
Manser, Martin H. "albatross around one's neck." Writer's Reference Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 18 Apr. 2025. <http://fofweb.infobase.com/wrc/Detail.aspx?iPin=DOA00071>.
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albatross around one's neck

Definition 
A burden that constitutes a real hindrance to progress. The allusion is to the poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in which a luckless sailor finds himself cursed after he has killed an albatross, which he is forced by the rest of the crew to wear around his neck in penance (the albatross being a lucky bird that sailors believed should be left unharmed). "Michael Banks was suddenly a very expensive albatross around Paul Lexington's neck" (Simon Brett, Murder Unprompted, 1984). The allusion is widely known and is sometimes abbreviated to albatross: That building is a real albatross, costing more in upkeep than it earns in rent. See also ancient mariner.

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