pass the buck

Cultural  

1. To shift blame from oneself to another person: “Passing the buck is a way of life in large bureaucracies.” (See the buck stops here.)

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pass the buck Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pass the buck

Although Manuel, Barker and Miss J pass the buck plenty of times, too, the agonizing recall of their collective firing in 2012 allows them to come off more sympathetically.

From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2026

Indeed, her focus on grand jury materials controlled by the judiciary is plainly an effort to pass the buck and obscure the fact that she has some independent authority to disclose information.

From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2025

It suggested the State Bar was trying to pass the buck for its own failures.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2025

"They are all trying to pass the buck so that no one says yes I made this decision knowing that should a fire occur it would be one of complete devastation."

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2024

So he had decided to try and pass the buck.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols