means To punt is to deliberately defer a decision or action, passing the problem along rather than resolving it now — borrowed from the football play where you kick the ball away on fourth down.

from The verb comes from the kicking sense in rugby and later American football, where to 'punt' is to drop the ball and strike it before it hits the ground. The football term itself is of uncertain origin, possibly tied to dialectal English 'bunt' (to push or butt). Quite separately, the flat-bottomed 'punt' boat — the one you pole down a river — traces back to Latin 'ponto,' a kind of flat boat or pontoon, and that punt has nothing to do with the kick despite sharing a spelling. The figurative 'to give up and defer' meaning grew out of the sporting move, since kicking on fourth down means conceding you won't make the yards this time.