When you punt in football, you drop the ball and kick it before it hits the ground, usually on fourth down when your team decides to give up possession rather than risk losing the ball close to your own end zone. The punter tries to kick it as far downfield as possible, giving the other team worse field position to start their drive.

Outside of football, to punt can mean to give up on something difficult and try a different approach, or to postpone a decision you don't want to make right now. A student who can't figure out a tough homework problem might punt and move on to easier questions first. A family trying to pick a restaurant might punt the decision until later when everyone's less tired.

When someone says “let's punt on this for now,” they mean “let's set this aside and deal with it another time.”

As a noun, a punt can also be a small flat-bottomed boat moved by pushing a long pole against the river bottom, popular in places like Oxford and Cambridge in England. But you'll hear the football and decision-avoiding meanings far more often in American English.