IdiomDaily Life
Italian
Italianfare a scaricabarile
Meaning: To evade responsibility by shifting blame to someone else; to pass the buck.
Literally: To make load-dumping
Example: “Ogni ufficio fa a scaricabarile e il cliente aspetta.” — Every office passes the buck and the customer waits.
English equivalent: To pass the buck
Equivalents in other languages
English: pass the buck
French: Refiler la patate chaude Literally: To pass on the hot potato
Origin: Scaricabarile (unload-the-barrel) was a children's game, as the Treccani dictionary records: two players stood back to back with arms linked and lifted each other in turn. The back-and-forth of the load passing from one to the other gave the phrase for passing blame or responsibility to someone else.
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