palm off

British  

verb

1. to offer, sell, or spend fraudulently

   to palm off a counterfeit coin

2. to divert in order to be rid of

   I palmed the unwelcome visitor off on John

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palm off Idioms  

1. Pass off by deception, substitute with intent to deceive, as in The salesman tried to palm off a zircon as a diamond, or The producer tried to palm her off as a star from the Metropolitan Opera. This expression alludes to concealing something in the palm of one's hand. It replaced the earlier palm on in the early 1800s.

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Example Sentences

"They pulled it off, because they managed to flog the goods and palm off a $4m ring in Antwerp, which isn't that easy," he added.

From BBC • May 12, 2025

It’s offensive to try to paint them as self-interested NIMBYs who just want to palm off the problem on someone else.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 12, 2021

This assumption made it common for editors to palm off parts of the “Henry VI” plays, which have often been deemed crude and faulty, on other playwrights, like Thomas Nashe or George Peele.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 19, 2017

“The ECB is being dragged unwillingly back to the table, having tried originally to palm off responsibility for restructuring the euro zone to governments,” said Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank AG in London.

From BusinessWeek • Aug. 4, 2011

It was on my palm off to the side, and I curled my body as I turned and pushed the ball around their center toward Jose.

From "Slam!" by Walter Dean Myers