TongTong
Sign in

推卸 (tuī xiè) — to shirk (responsibility); to shift (the blame); to pass the buck

Definition

推卸 specifically means shirking responsibility or shifting blame onto others — used with 责任 or 过错, more formal than the colloquial 偷懒 ('slacking off').

verb
to shirk (responsibility)to shift (the blame)to pass the buck

Examples

  • 推卸。
    Tā zǒng xiǎng bǎ zé rèn tuī xiè gěi bié rén.
    He always wants to shift responsibility to others.
  • ，推卸。
    Zuò wéi lǐng dǎo, nǐ bù néng tuī xiè zì jǐ de zé rèn.
    As a leader, you cannot shirk your own responsibility.
  • 推卸，。
    Yù dào wèn tí jiù tuī xiè, zhè bú shì hǎo xí guàn.
    Shifting blame when encountering problems is not a good habit.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

推tuīpush off
卸xièdiscard

The 推 sense of pushing off and the 卸 sense of discarding combine to mean avoid responsibility.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
隹
隹zhuī推tuī
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left side 扌 is a hand, and the right side 隹 gives the sound; the character shows pushing with the hand.

Open 推 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 卸 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Abstract Concepts

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.