Idiom
The buck stops here
The buck stops here means I take final responsibility, and I won't pass the blame to anyone else.
How people use it
Leaders, managers, coaches and parents say this when they accept ultimate responsibility for a decision or a result. It is often changed to fit the speaker: "The buck stops with me" or "The buck stops with her." The opposite idea is "pass the buck," which means shifting blame or a job to someone else. The tone is neutral and fairly serious, and it signals honesty and accountability.
Also said: the buck stops with me.
Examples
- If the trip goes wrong, blame me, because the buck stops here.
- The head chef told her staff the buck stops with her when a dish is sent back.
- As team captain, Omar said the buck stops here, not with the coach.
Where it comes from
The phrase grows out of "pass the buck," a poker expression from the 1800s. A marker called a buck, sometimes a knife with a buckhorn handle, showed whose turn it was to deal, and a player could pass it to the next person. President Harry S. Truman made "The buck stops here" famous by keeping a sign with those words on his desk.
Check yourself
1. What does a manager mean by saying, "The buck stops here"?
Answer: She takes final responsibility. The phrase means the speaker accepts the blame and the duty.
2. Which phrase means the opposite of the buck stops here?
Answer: Pass the buck. Passing the buck means shifting responsibility to someone else.
Similar idioms
Word game fan? See every word hiding in BUCK.