PASS THE BUCK Definition & Meaning

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pass the buck

To shift blame from oneself to another person: “Passing the buck is a way of life in large bureaucracies.” ( See the buck stops here .)

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Idioms and Phrases

Shift responsibility or blame elsewhere, as in She's always passing the buck to her staff; it's time she accepted the blame herself . This expression dates from the mid-1800s, when in a poker game a piece of buckshot or another object was passed around to remind a player that he was the next dealer. It acquired its present meaning by about 1900.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Not everyone was ready to let Bondi pass the buck, though.

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His first appearance was on Say the �y��vlog in 1997, and other credits include Pass the Buck, Breakaway and Two Tribes.

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Ms Ford said that response was "a terrible way of trying to pass the buck onto the victims".

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The collective angst has so far not resulted in a massive protest and, as the Supreme Court once observed, politicians just “pass the buck” and wait for the season to get over.

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"They are all trying to pass the buck so that no one says yes I made this decision knowing that should a fire occur it would be one of complete devastation."

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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