palm off

verb

palmed off; palming off; palms off

transitive verb

1

: to dispose of usually by trickery or guile

2

: pass off sense 2

palming himself off as a minister

—Toni Morrison

Synonyms

• wish
• pass off
• inflict
• impose
• fob off
• palm

Examples of palm off in a Sentence

please stop trying to palm off your leftovers onto me

Recent Examples on the Web

The unique shape helps keep your palm off the table while offering a spot for your thumb to rest. —Brenda Stolyar, Wired News, 9 May 2025

And there’s an art to delegating, without seemingly palming off work to your team. —Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 2 Mar. 2023

Giannoli’s narrator lays out press performance in Balzacian details that sound absolutely contemporary: News, debate, and ideas had become goods to palm off on subscribers. —Armond White, National Review, 10 June 2022

However, in spite of this price increase and attempts to palm off blame, there is hardly any middle-class anger even resembling that which existed during the last years of the UPA. —Shoaib Daniyal, Quartz India, 21 Feb. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1822, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for palm off

• ashraf
• checkoff
• cutoff
• falloff
• handoff
• kickoff
• layoff
• liftoff
• markoff
• markov
• payoff
• playoff

Kids Definition

palm off

verb

: to get rid of or pass on (as something fake, useless, or of poor quality) in a dishonest way

palmed off fake antiques on unsuspecting customers

Legal Definition

palm off

transitive verb

: to sell or attempt to sell (a product) by inducing buyers to believe that one's product is actually the product of another

specifically : to attempt to sell (a product) under another's trademark or trade name