“Pass the buck”in other languages
Shift a responsibility or the blame onto someone else.
English
French
Italian
EnglishFrenchItalianSame idea, different pictures
English comes from poker, where a marker called a buck showed whose turn it was to deal; President Truman famously kept a sign saying “The buck stops here”. French passes the hot potato, refiler la patate chaude, too hot to hold for long.
Italian fare a scaricabarile is a game of dumping the barrel on the next person.
More sayings in other languages
- Pave the way
- Cast pearls before swine
- A penny pincher
- Right on cue
- Pick a fight
- Pick holes in something
- Buy a pig in a poke
- Play to the gallery
- Play with fire