pass the parcel

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

pass the parcel (uncountable)

1. (games) A children's game in which a parcel having many layers of packaging is passed from person to person around a ring while music plays, the person holding the parcel when the music is temporarily stopped being allowed to remove a single layer, and the person removing the innermost layer winning the prize contained within; in a variation of the game, there is a prize under each layer that is awarded to the person removing that layer.
2. (by extension) a situation in which the ownership of something changes frequently.