scapegoat
/ˈskeɪpˌɡoʊt/ · noun
Meaning
- In the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed.
- Someone punished for the error or errors of someone else.
- To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.
- To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.
Etymology / origin
No prose etymology has been added yet.
No ancestor words have been linked yet.
Related words
Descendant words
No descendant words have been linked yet.