buck, Pass the buck, big bucks, the buck stops here

President Trump bucked most of his top national-security advisers by abandoning retaliatory strikes in Iran.

Where the Buck Stops, Some See a Bystander
By PETER BAKER


President Obama has been under fire for his seeming detachment from significant matters, like spying on allied heads of state and the rollout of the health insurance website.


Hollywood's Highest Paid Actor: Robert Downey Jr.
How much green does it take to be the highest-paid actor in Hollywood? This year, that magic number is $75 million—and the man who brought home the big bucks was Robert Downey Jr.


buck,
n.

1. 1. The adult male of some animals, such as the deer, antelope, or rabbit.
   2. Antelope considered as a group: a herd of buck.
2. 1. A robust or high-spirited young man.
   2. A fop.
3. Offensive. A Native American or Black man.
4. An act or instance of bucking: a horse that unseated its rider on the first buck.
5. 1. Buckskin.
   2. bucks Buckskin breeches or shoes.

v., bucked, buck·ing, bucks. v.intr.

1. To leap upward arching the back: The horse bucked in fright.
2. To charge with the head lowered; butt.
3. To make sudden jerky movements; jolt: The motor bucked and lurched before it finally ran smoothly.
4. To resist stubbornly and obstinately; balk.
5. Informal. To strive with determination: bucking for a promotion.

v.tr.

1. To throw or toss by bucking: buck off a rider; bucked the packsaddle off its back.
2. To oppose directly and stubbornly; go against: “Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the country, is bucking the trend” (American Demographics).
3. Football. To charge into (an opponent's line) carrying the ball.
4. Archaic. To butt against with the head.

adj.
Of the lowest rank in a specified military category: a buck private; a buck sergeant.
phrasal verb:
buck up

1. To summon one's courage or spirits; hearten: My friends tried to buck me up after I lost the contest.

[Middle English bukke, from Old English buc, male deer, and bucca, male goat.]

buck'er n.
buck² (bŭk)
n.

1. A sawhorse or sawbuck.
2. A leather-covered frame used for gymnastic vaulting.

[Alteration (influenced by BUCK¹) of Dutch bok, male goat, trestle, from Middle Dutch boc.]

buck³ (bŭk)
n. Informal.

1. A dollar.
2. An amount of money: working overtime to make an extra buck.

[Short for BUCKSKIN (from its use in trade).]

buck⁴ (bŭk)
n. Games.

1. A counter or marker formerly passed from one poker player to another to indicate an obligation, especially one's turn to deal.
2. Informal. Obligation to account for something; responsibility: tried to pass the buck for the failure to his boss.

tr.v. Informal., bucked, buck·ing, bucks.
To pass (a task or duty) to another, especially so as to avoid responsibility: “We will see the stifling of initiative and the increased bucking of decisions to the top” (Winston Lord).

idiom:
the buck stops here Informal.

1. The ultimate responsibility rests here.

[Short for buckhorn knife (from its use as a marker in poker).]

the buck stops here (or with someone)

informal the responsibility for something cannot or should not be passed to someone else: in the past you could spread the blame, but now the buck stops here

Pass the buck

Meaning
Evade responsibility by passing it on to someone else.
Origin
Look up 'buck' in the dictionary and you'll find a couple of dozen assorted nouns, verbs and adjectives. The most common use of the word these days is as the slang term for the American dollar. That's not the buck meant here though. Look a little further down the list and you'll find the definition 'buck: an article used in a game of poker' - and that's the buck that was first passed.
Poker became very popular in America during the second half of the 19th century. Players were highly suspicious of cheating or any form of bias and there's considerable folklore depicting gunslingers in shoot-outs based on accusations of dirty dealing. In order to avoid unfairness the deal changed hands during sessions. The person who was next in line to deal would be given a marker. This was often a knife, and knives often had handles made of buck's horn - hence the marker becoming known as a buck. When the dealer's turn was done he 'passed the buck'.
Silver dollars were later used as markers and this is probably the origin of the use of buck as a slang term for dollar.
The earliest citation that I can find of the literal use of the phrase in print is from the Weekly New Mexican, July 1865:

They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the 'buck'.

This is clearly around the time that the phrase was coined, as there are several such printed citations in the following years.
The figurative version of the phrase, i.e. a usage where no actual buck is present, begins around the start of the 20th century. For example, this piece in the California newspaper The Oakland Tribune, from May, 1902:

[Oakland City Attorney] Dow - 'When the public or the Council "pass the buck" up to me I am going to act.'

The reporter's use of quotation marks around pass the buck indicate its recent coinage as a figurative phrase, or at least one that the paper's readers might not have been expected to be familiar with.
The best-known use of buck in this context is 'the buck stops here', which was the promise made by US president Harry S. Truman, and which he kept prominent in his own and his electors' minds by putting it on a sign on his desk.

---

The Phrase A Week newsletter goes to 92,000 subscribers (71,500 by e-mail, 20,500 by RSS feed).

Please help support this newsletter.