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

Embrey, whose mother was incarcerated at Manzanar and helped start pilgrimages there, says he receives calls from people wanting to pawn off items on him “every year without fail.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2021

He might want to present his own opera starring Harper when Boras makes his annual winter trip to Lerner’s Palm Spring home to pawn off some Boras free agents on the Nationals owner.

From Washington Times • Dec. 10, 2017

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