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Idiom: Pass the buck
At first glance, pass the buck may sound like a fun game.
Perhaps it would be something similar to ‘hot potato’ where you have to pass something between players, and whoever drops it is out.
Unfortunately, passing the buck is sort of like that, but there’s not much fun involved at all.
When you pass the buck, you pass responsibility for something that has gone wrong to someone else, even though it is ultimately you who is responsible.
I suppose it would be fun to pass the buck as long as you are not on the receiving end.
Now, we have the explanation of the meaning out of the way; what the heck is a buck anyway?
Well, it’s common to refer to dollars as bucks, and a male deer is a buck, too, but we’re not referring to money or deer when we say pass the buck.
The expression comes from playing card games.
Back in the past, during a card game, a marker or buck was placed in front of the player whose turn or responsibility it was to deal the cards.
When the dealer changed, the buck and responsibility were passed on to the next person to be the dealer.
Today, passing the buck is not considered a likeable thing to do.
People who are seen as passing the buck are deemed to be evading responsibility.
It always seems to be whoever is low on the totem pole that takes the blame.
More respect is given to people who own their mistakes and accept responsibility for clearing them up.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 72.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.