whipping boy
a person who is made to bear the blame for another's mistake; scapegoat.
(formerly) a boy educated along with and taking punishment in place of a young prince or nobleman.
Origin of whipping boy
1Words Nearby whipping boy
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use whipping boy in a sentence
Alan Colmes is best known as the lefty whipping boy on Fox News.
Alan Colmes: New Book Bids to Liberate Liberalism | Lloyd Grove | October 10, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTConversely, former Wall Street whipping boy Goldman Sachs has seen the heat die down.
JP Morgan Losses, Barclays’s Bad Bet: It’s a Bad Day for Banks | Alex Klein | June 28, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTAs a whipping-boy he was too spiritless to be satisfying, and Lady Barbara addressed herself to the invitation.
Lady Lilith | Stephen McKennaThe most familiar example of whipping-boy is mentioned by Fuller in his "Church History."
Little Folks (October 1884) | VariousIn others he denounces it as rank Judaism, the Jew having at that time become for him the whipping boy for all modern humanity.
The Perfect Wagnerite | George Bernard Shaw
But she's had to understand that I won't be her friend's whipping-boy.
Regiment of Women | Clemence DaneAn' thou cease from study mine office is gone thou'lt need no whipping-boy.
The Prince and The Pauper, Complete | Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
British Dictionary definitions for whipping boy
a person of little importance who is blamed for the errors, incompetence, etc, of others, esp his superiors; scapegoat
Origin of whipping boy
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with whipping boy
A scapegoat, as in This department's always been the whipping boy when things don't go well. This expression alludes to the former practice of keeping a boy to be whipped in place of a prince who was to be punished. [Early 1900s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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