pawn off

Idioms  

1. Dispose of by deception, as in They tried to pawn off a rebuilt computer as new. This expression may have originated as a corruption of palm off, although it was also put as pawn upon in the 1700s, when it originated.

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Example Sentences

Evgeny agrees to share, but implores Dmitri not to eat it all because he “had to pawn off a bit of mother’s good silver and then wait three hours in line.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

Walz took it upon himself to run an errand other governors might pawn off on a staffer.

From Salon • Aug. 7, 2024

Instead of offset language, the NBA has a system where it seems you can pawn off your bad contract on someone dumber than you.

From Washington Times • Nov. 21, 2023

Or, perhaps the thief planned to return a very good fake to the museum anonymously and pawn off near-perfect copies for sale as the original.

From New York Times • Oct. 7, 2022

He sent to Gondokoro for ammunition for his mountain howitzer, and the commandant there thought it a good chance to pawn off on him some that was so damp as to be useless.

From The Story of General Gordon by Lang, Jeanie