albatross Idioma

---

Albatross around your neck

An albatross around, or round, your neck is a problem resulting from something you did that stops you from being successful.

---

albatross around one's neck|albatross|neck

n. phr., literary Guilt, the haunting past, an unforgettable problem. Even though it was an accident, John's father's death has been an albatross around John's neck.
Compare: MONKEY ON ONE'S BACK.

---

albatross around one's neck

albatross around one's neck
A heavy burden of guilt that becomes an obstacle to success, as in The failed real estate scheme became an albatross around her neck, for now she could not interest other investors in a new project. This idiom comes from Samuel Coleridge's narrative poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), which is based on the widespread superstition that it is unlucky to kill this large white sea bird. In the poem a sailor does kill an albatross, and when the ship then is becalmed near the equator and runs out of water, his shipmates blame him and force him to wear the dead bird around his neck.