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pass the buck
Slang Dictionary

buck definition


  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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Slang Dictionary

pass the buck definition


  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.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
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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