["punt" - Word of the Day from the OED]

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 12:22:44AM -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 10:39 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > *verb PUNT*
> >
> > This seems to be the meaning I want to expand upon a bit.
> >>
> >>     *4.* /N. Amer. colloq./
> >>
> >>     *a.* /intr./ To give up, back out; to defer or avoid taking action
> > or responsibility, to 'pass the buck'.

[...]

> > What seems to be missing here is the combination "punt on", as in "I
> > think, I'll punt on that!", meaning "I will skip that." (similar to 4b
> > above)
>
> I think this is actually covered by sense 4a. See the 1982 cite: "The
> board ... has punted on a major issue." But it might be worth noting
> explicitly in 4a, with earlier cites for "punt on (a question, issue,
> etc.)" as you've provided.

4.a. covers this exactly; I'm not even sure why _punt on_
would need to be mentioned as a separate lemma, to be honest.
As long as there's an example in the quotation paragraph, I
think that's enough to show that it's a possibility.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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