scapegoat

[skeyp-goht]

noun

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.

verb (used with object)

1. to make a scapegoat of.

   Strike leaders tried to scapegoat foreign competitors.

scapegoat

/ 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

verb

1. (tr) to make a scapegoat of

scapegoat

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of scapegoat¹

First recorded in 1520–30; scape ² + goat

Word History and Origins

Origin of scapegoat¹

C16: from _escape + _goat , coined by William Tyndale to translate Biblical Hebrew azāzēl (probably) goat for Azazel, mistakenly thought to mean ``goat that escapes''

Example Sentences

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.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“Attacking California’s public intervenor program is a short-sighted attempt to scapegoat consumer advocates for what is clearly a national crisis,” Carly Fabian, senior insurance policy advocate with the group’s Climate Program, said in a statement.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Her lawyers argued that Maxwell was a scapegoat for Epstein.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But sentencing him, District Judge Christopher Williams said: "You sought to portray yourself as a victim and that you'd been made to be a scapegoat."

Read more on BBC

Talking to kids about their online lives and the messages about gender they are receiving from media and their peers can help boost resilience to harmful narratives or scapegoating.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• fall guy