English Idiom – Pass the buck.
To avoid responsibility for something by blaming someone else or making them deal with the problem.
Something has gone wrong and nobody wants to take the blame. Everyone points at everyone else, hoping the problem will become somebody else’s job. They’re all passing the buck!
Believe it or not, this is another idiom from the poker table. In old American poker games, the “buck” was a marker, often a knife with a buckhorn handle, or even a pencil. It was placed in the pot and taken for a while by the winner, so it moved around the table from player to player. Pass the buck was poker slang by around 1865, and by 1912 people were using it to mean passing responsibility to someone else.
The opposite idea is “the buck stops here”, meaning I accept final responsibility; I won’t pass this problem on to anyone else. It was made famous by US President Harry Truman, who kept a sign with those words on his desk.
How to Use It
- pass the buck (to someone) – “Don’t try to pass the buck to me. It was your idea!”
- buck-passing (noun) – “There’s far too much buck-passing in this office.”
- the buck stops here / with me – “I’m the manager, so the buck stops with me.”
Note: you’ll hear this idiom a lot at work and in the news, whenever people or organisations try to avoid the blame for a mistake.
More idioms from the poker table: Poker Face, Call Someone’s Bluff and An Ace Up Your Sleeve.
Example:
- “When the deadline was missed, everyone started passing the buck instead of fixing the problem.”
- “The shop blamed the delivery company, and the delivery company blamed the shop. They just kept passing the buck.”
- “Stop passing the buck and admit you forgot to book the table!”
Learn More
Look it upBuck: word origin and history – Etymonlineetymonline.comWhat is an idiom?
An idiom is a word or phrase that is not taken literally. An idiom is an expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words, but has a separate meaning of its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
It means to avoid responsibility for something by blaming someone else or making them deal with the problem.
It comes from poker. The “buck” was a marker, often a buckhorn-handled knife, that moved around the table between players. “Pass the buck” was poker slang by around 1865, and meant passing responsibility to someone else by 1912.
It means you accept final responsibility and won’t pass a problem on to anyone else. It was made famous by US President Harry Truman, who kept a sign with those words on his desk.
Test Yourself
What is FunkyEnglish?
FunkyEnglish is a website that helps you improve your English. We offer quick lessons that teach idioms, slang, phrasal verbs and more. Visit our homepage to see our latest articles, or use the menu to find specific content!
