scapegoat

American  

[skeyp-goht] / ˈskeɪpˌgoʊt /

noun

• scapegoats
  plural

1. a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.

2. Chiefly Biblical. a goat let loose in the wilderness on Yom Kippur after the high priest symbolically laid the sins of the people on its head. Leviticus 16:8,10,26.

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verb (used with object)

1. to make a scapegoat of.

   Strike leaders tried to scapegoat foreign competitors.

scapegoat British  

/ ˈskeɪpˌɡəʊt /

noun

1. a person made to bear the blame for others

2. Old Testament a goat used in the ritual of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16); it was symbolically laden with the sins of the Israelites and sent into the wilderness to be destroyed

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verb

1. (tr) to make a scapegoat of

scapegoat Cultural  

1. A person or group that is made to bear blame for others. According to the Old Testament, on the Day of Atonement, a priest would confess all the sins of the Israelites over the head of a goat and then drive it into the wilderness, symbolically bearing their sins away.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• scapegoats
  plural

Etymology

Origin of scapegoat

First recorded in 1520–30; scape ² + goat

Explanation

The Bible depicts a ritual in which a goat is sent out into the desert bearing the faults of the people of Israel. The word scapegoat first occurred in the earliest English translation of the Bible, and it has come to mean any individual punished for the misdeeds of others. When a politician gets caught lying, he or she might use an assistant as a scapegoat. Somehow the lie will wind up being the assistant's fault. Your mom might tell you to use her as a scapegoat if you need to. So if your friends want you to go to a wild party and you don't want to, you should tell them your mom won't let you. That way, they will be mad at her and not at you. A fall guy is similar to a scapegoat, but it is mostly used if your scheme has been found out and one of your group of schemers must take the consequences.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scapegoat scapegoats

They also depicted him as a scapegoat whose prosecution was being used to cover up the Los Angeles Fire Department's failure to extinguish the initial fire.

From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026

Plaintiff lawyers say they are being made the scapegoat for a problem of the insurers’ own making.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026

He claimed he had been made a "scapegoat" after a "witch hunt" following the operation, carried out at the Royal Oldham Hospital, where he was working as a locum on 25 August 2020.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Is it actually dangerous for kids, or a scapegoat for a larger problem?

From Slate ● May 17, 2026

If she arrived a minute after, she worried because that made her the logical scapegoat of the boss if he happened to be in a bad mood that day.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

The platforms make easy scapegoats, and parents’ concerns are genuine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

Whatever the case, more scapegoats are almost certainly on the way.

From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2026

"I understand that populism is spreading all over the world and that people are trying to look for scapegoats, they're angry," he said.

From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026

They organize themselves in opposition to a class of front-runners—those benefiting the most from the economy—with ire often left over for scapegoats, too.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2025

I should have been cursing the system, but my mom and dad were much more tangible scapegoats.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

Related Words

• fall guy