pawn off

Idioms

Dispose of by deception, as in They tried to pawn off a rebuilt computer as new. This expression may have originated as a corruption of palm off, although it was also put as pawn upon in the 1700s, when it originated.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Evgeny agrees to share, but implores Dmitri not to eat it all because he “had to pawn off a bit of mother’s good silver and then wait three hours in line.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Walz took it upon himself to run an errand other governors might pawn off on a staffer.

From Salon

Instead of offset language, the NBA has a system where it seems you can pawn off your bad contract on someone dumber than you.

From Washington Times

She’s a career woman who pawns the child off on this AI doll to cope with her niece’s emotional needs and also give her time to work, when in fact the lesson is you can’t pawn off human beings onto technology.

From Los Angeles Times

Or, perhaps the thief planned to return a very good fake to the museum anonymously and pawn off near-perfect copies for sale as the original.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023