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:
“Let woman out of the home, let man into it, should be the aim of education. The home needs man, and the world outside needs woman.”
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973)
“I will frankly declare, that after passing a few weeks in this valley of the Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one of the crew of a man-of-war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly overturned all my previous theories.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)