Definition
踢皮球 literally means 'kick a ball' and refers to a children's game (similar to hacky sack or keepy-uppy). More commonly, it's a figurative idiom meaning 'to pass the buck' or 'to shirk responsibility by shifting it to someone else' — used especially in bureaucratic or collaborative settings where nobody wants to take ownership. As a separable verb (离合词), you can insert measure words or modifiers between 踢 and 皮球, e.g., 踢了一次皮球 ('passed the buck once').
v.o.
(literal) a game of kicking a ballto kick a ball(figurative) to pass the buckto shift responsibility onto others
Examples
- ，踢皮球。Zhège wèntí shuí dōu bù guǎn, dàjiā dōu zài tī pí qiú.Nobody wants to deal with this problem; everyone is passing the buck.
- ，。Tāmen tī le yí gè yuè de píqiú, zuìhòu háishì méi jiějué.They passed the buck for a whole month and still didn't solve it.
- 踢皮球，。Xiǎoshíhou wǒmen cháng zài xiàngzi lǐ tī pí qiú, wán de hěn kāixīn.When we were kids we often kicked a ball around in the alley and had a great time.
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