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pass the buck

 - 6 dictionary results

buck

4  [buhk]
Use pass the buck in a Sentence
–noun
1. Poker. any object in the pot that reminds the winner of some privilege or obligation when his or her turn to deal next comes.
–verb (used with object)
2. to pass (something) along to another, esp. as a means of avoiding responsibility or blame: He bucked the letter on to the assistant vice president to answer.
—Idiom
3. pass the buck, to shift responsibility or blame to another person: Never one to admit error, he passed the buck to his subordinates.
Origin:
1860–65; short for buckhorn knife, an object which served this function
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Cultural Dictionary

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.)

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
buck

  1. n.
    a dollar. : Gimme a buck for a bottle of wine, will you mister?
  2. tv.
    to resist something. : He enjoys bucking the system.
  3. n.
    a buckskin (leather) shoe. (Usually plural.) : Look at my new white bucks!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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pass the buck

  1. tv.
    to shift the responsibility for something to someone else; to evade responsibility. (See also buckpasser.) : Don't pass the buck. Stand up and admit you were wrong.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

buck 
O.E. bucca "male goat," from P.Gmc. *bukkon (cf. M.Du. boc, O.H.G. boc, O.N. bokkr), perhaps from a PIE base *bhugo (cf. Avestan buza "buck, goat," Arm. buc "lamb"), but some speculate that it is from a lost pre-Gmc. language. Apparently O.E. also had buc "male deer." The two words (if truly separate) were fully merged by c.1100. Verb is 1848, apparently with a sense of "jump like a buck." Meaning of "dollar" is 1856, Amer.Eng., perhaps an abbreviation of buckskin, a unit of trade among Indians and Europeans in frontier days, attested in this sense from 1748. Buckshot is first recorded 1447; buck up "cheer up" is from 1844. Pass the buck is first recorded in the lit. sense 1865, Amer.Eng.:
"The 'buck' is any inanimate object, usually knife or pencil, which is thrown into a jack pot and temporarily taken by the winner of the pot. Whenever the deal reaches the holder of the 'buck', a new jack pot must be made." [J.W. Keller, "Draw Poker," 1887]
The fig, sense of "shift responsibility" is first recorded 1912.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

pass the buck

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.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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