pass the buck

English

Etymology

May have originated with the game of poker, in which a marker or counter, frequently in frontier days a knife with a buckhorn handle, was used to indicate the person whose turn it was to deal. If the player did not wish to deal he could pass the responsibility by passing the "buckhorn" or "buck", as the marker came to be called, to the next player.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

pass the buck (third-person singular simple present passes the buck, present participle passing the buck, simple past and past participle passed the buck)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To transfer responsibility or blame from oneself onto another; to absolve oneself of concern for a given matter by claiming to lack authority or jurisdiction.

   Coordinate term: weasel out

   • 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 44:

     He closes the foreword by acknowledging that his proposals would have far-reaching impacts on railway staff, communities and industry - and passes the buck onto government to ensure that these consequences are managed appropriately.

Related terms

• buck-passing
• buck-passer
• the buck stops here

Translations

to transfer responsibility or blame from oneself

• Catalan: passar la pilota (literally “pass the ball”)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 推卸責任／推卸责任 (tuīxiè zérèn)

• Danish: sende aben videre (literally “to pass the monkey along”)
• Dutch: zwartepieten (nl)
• Finnish: pakoilla vastuuta
• French: renvoyer la balle (fr) (literally “send the bullet back”)
• German: die Verantwortung weiterreichen (an), die Verantwortung schieben (auf), die Schuld abschieben (auf)
• Italian: fare a scaricabarile (literally “to play barrel-dumping”)
• Japanese: 蜥蜴の尻尾切りにする (tokage no shippo giri, literally “to play the lizard's tail cut”), 盥回しにする (taraimawasi ni suru, literally “to play the turning of the tub”)
• Maori: whakarare, uapare
• Russian: сва́ливать отве́тственность impf (sválivatʹ otvétstvennostʹ), переводи́ть стре́лки impf (perevodítʹ strélki, literally “move the arrows”) (colloquial)
• Spanish: pasar la bola (literally “to pass the ball”)
• Vietnamese: đổ trách nhiệm (literally “to pour responsibility”), chuồi trách nhiệm (literally “to sneak in responsibility”), đổ tội (literally “to pour blame”), đổ lỗi (literally “to pour blame”), đổ quanh (literally “to pour it around”)

Further reading

• Gary Martin (1997–) “Pass the buck”, in The Phrase Finder.