what does the idiom “albatross around your neck” mean?

from “the rime of the ancient mariner,” a past sin staying with a person.

Albatross Around Your Neck Poem

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.

It came from the poem ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Coleridge, I believe). The albatross was considered a symbol of good luck by sailors. In the poem the ancient mariner killed one, bad luck befell the ship (“water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Water water everywhere and all the boards did shrink”), and the crew made him wear it around his neck. Based on the poem, the albatross became the symbol of bad luck. The term is typically used to indicate that a deed a person has done will stay with them from now on.

It means, you’re burdened with something. It comes from an old Greek story (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) about a man who killed an albatross (a good luck symbol of the time) while at sea. It was a bad omen.

“What goes around comes around” is somewhat like Karma. Usually it has a negative connotation. It means that how you treat others will eventually come back to hurt or reward you depending on whether you were kind or unkind. For example, if someone always gossips about other people, eventually others will gossip about him/her.

It means an omen of bad luck caused by oneself. If one does not correct the error in judgement, it may cause death.

someone or something that is holding a person back.

in trouble