From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpass the buckpass the buckto make someone else responsible for something that you should deal with → buck
Examples from the Corpus
pass the buck• If in doubt, pass the buck.• Mr. Loyden Is not the Minister passing the buck?• Some patients and carers were also unhappy about what they saw as sub-optimal care or different services passing the buck.• When anything like this happened, every office-holder in the community made speeches passing the buck on to the police department.• Shouldn't we now be acknowledging blame rather than passing the buck?• We were in the happy position of being able to pass the buck.• It's easy to pass the buck and blame someone else for your failure.• I personally refuse to pass the buck.• It was his mistake but he tried to pass the buck to another manager.• You were in charge of that project, so don't try to pass the buck.• a bunch of politicians all trying to pass the buck• Diplomats say NATO is clearly at fault, and that officials there are trying to pass the buck. 