Dictionary

palm off en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

“Palming” an object (as in a playing card) is a type of sleight of hand, secretly removing the desired article and leaving only the undesired one.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To sell or dispose of (something) with the intent to deceive; to attempt to pass off a counterfeit or inferior product as genuine.
   • The inveterate liars of the Semi-Weekly Earthquake are evidently endeavoring to palm off upon a noble and chivalrous people another of their vile and brutal falsehoods […] 1871, Mark Twain, Journalism In Tennessee:
   • […] the old mangy parcel he sent at Xmas a cottage cake and a bottle of hogwash he tried to palm off as claret that he couldnt^([sic]) get anyone to drink […] 1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 18]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC:
   • (p.359) […] no one is to be allowed fraudulently to palm off upon the public his goods as those of another. (p.379) It is a fundamental rule that one man has no right to palm off his goods for sale as goods of a rival dealer […] 1963, United States Code Annotated:

Forms

Relateds

reverse palming off · pam off

Synonyms

pawn off · unload · pass off · foist · fob off · offload

Translations (14)

ru всучи́вать (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · ota صاتمق (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · ru сба́гривать (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · fr refourguer (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · az sırımaq (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · pl wciskać (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · ru подсо́вывать (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · nl opzadelen met (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · it sbolognare (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · nl opdringen (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · fr refiler (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · fi panna kiertoon (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · pl opylać (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive) · ru сбыва́ть (to sell or dispose of something with the intent to deceive)