/ˈpɑːs ðə ˈbʌk/
English idiom, informal. To shift the blame onto someone else.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Pass the buck
?
Informal and common in American and British English, especially about officials and managers who dodge responsibility: “Don’t try to pass the buck.” You can pass the buck “to” someone. It’s usually a criticism of other people.
Also said pass the book
Pass the buck
in real sentences
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Don’t try to pass the buck.
Tatoeba, sentence by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
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You’re just trying to pass the buck.
Tatoeba, sentence by felidad, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Pass the buck
come from?
It comes from poker in 19th-century America, where a marker called the “buck” showed whose turn it was to deal. Phrase Finder says the marker was often a knife with a buckhorn handle, and its earliest literal citation is the Weekly New Mexican of July 1865; the figurative sense appears around 1900. President Harry Truman’s desk sign “The buck stops here” turned the phrase around.
Mistakes learners make with Pass the buck
Learners think “buck” means a dollar and read it as handing over money. Here the buck is an old poker marker, and the phrase is about handing over responsibility.
Other English idioms like Pass the buck
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