take the fall

Idioms and Phrases

Incur blame or censure for another's misdeeds, as in She's taken the fall for you in terms of any political damage , or A senior official took the fall for the failed intelligence operation . This expression originated in the 1920s as underworld slang. It began to be extended to less criminal kinds of blame in the second half of the 1900s. Also see take a fall , def. 2.

Related Words

• blame
• condemn
• confine
• convict
• imprison
• incarcerate
• jail
• penalize
• punish