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Meaning of pass the buck in English:

pass the buck

phrase

informal

  • Shift the responsibility for something to someone else.

    • ‘elected political leaders cannot pass the buck for crisis decisions to any alternative source of authority’
    • ‘It seems to me that it is far easier to pass the buck than to take personal responsibility for our own actions.’
    • ‘The government can pass the buck to companies, and workers can abdicate all responsibility.’
    • ‘Instead they have been engaged in the old game of passing the buck, and shifting all blame onto the civil service.’
    • ‘I don't know if it's been chief and council passing the buck or the co-manager passing the buck.’
    • ‘It seems they keep on passing the buck - no one wants to accept responsibility.’
    • ‘But have any so breezily dodged responsibility and so glibly passed the buck?’
    • ‘What is especially telling is the depiction of a bureaucracy unable to react, passing the buck and avoiding responsibility.’
    • ‘This is unfair and shows that a hidden tax is often a devious tax, especially when the Government passes the buck to local councils and then disclaims all responsibility for what is going on.’
    • ‘Have you ever noticed, ironically, that the folks who spend so much time talking about ‘responsibility’ are usually the first to try to pass the buck?’
    • ‘It seems as if government departments are playing games with us, passing the buck from one minister to another.’