Buck passing or passing the buck is the act of attributing another person or group with responsibility for one's own actions. It is also used as a strategy in power politics when the actions of one country/nation are blamed on another, providing an opportunity for war.
The latter expression is said to have originated with the game of poker, in which a marker or counter (frequently in frontier days, a knife with a buckhorn handle), was used to indicate the person whose turn it was to deal. If the player did not wish to deal he could pass the responsibility by passing the "buck," as the counter came to be called, to the next player.
Read more about Buck Passing: Historical Examples
Famous quotes containing the words buck and/or passing:
“Profound as race prejudice is against the Negro American, it is not practically as far- reaching as the prejudice against women. For stripping away the sentimentality which makes Mother’s Day and Best American Mother Contests, the truth is that women suffer all the effects of a minority.”
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973)
“TAKE CARE TO SELL YOUR HORSE BEFORE HE DIES
THE ART OF LIFE IS PASSING LOSSES ON.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)