What it means
It means dodging blame or responsibility by shoving it onto somebody else. When a job blows up, the buck gets slid down the ladder and some poor sod ends up wearing it. You hear it a lot at work, in politics, and anywhere people get allergic to owning their mess.
Usage examples
"When the client kicked off, Dan tried to pass the buck to support, but everyone saw his email trail and called him out in the meeting."
"Every department just passes the buck, nobody wants to own the mistake."
"Do not pass the buck to me, you were the one who signed it off."
"Soon as the numbers looked rough, the manager started passing the buck to the interns, which was a proper grim move."
"Stop passing the buck, mate, it was your call and everybody in the room knows it."
Where it comes from
It goes back to 19th century American poker. The buck was a marker passed round the table to show whose turn it was to deal. Later, President Harry Truman made the opposite idea famous with The buck stops here, which helped lock the phrase into everyday English about dodging responsibility.
