shuffle off
To slowly walk away, or to pass something you don't want onto someone else.
Meanings
To move away from a place slowly and with a shuffling gait.
"The old man shuffled off toward the kitchen, mumbling to himself."
To pass on or evade a responsibility, blame, or unwanted task.
"He tried to shuffle off the work onto a junior colleague at the last minute."
(Literary/humorous) To die — from 'shuffle off this mortal coil'.
"The journalist joked that the old political party had finally shuffled off this mortal coil."
"To be, or not to be... Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer... or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them. To die, to sleep — no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache... For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil."
— William Shakespeare, 'Hamlet', Act III, Scene 1 (c. 1600)
Has three main uses: (1) to move away by shuffling, (2) to evade or transfer a problem/duty, and (3) the literary/humorous idiom 'shuffle off this mortal coil' (to die), from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Sense 3 is well-known even to non-literary audiences.
Commonly used with
Forms
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