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.
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Origin of whipping boy
First recorded in 1640–50
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for whipping boy
Historical Examples
But she's had to understand that I won't be her friend's whipping-boy.
Regiment of WomenClemence Dane
It's an old story; the House of Commons must always have its whipping-boy.
He was no longer a mere excrescence on the face of the earth—a poor, puny Pincher who was everybody's whipping-boy.
Pincher Martin, O.D.H. Taprell Dorling
If the Pasha had a whipping-boy, I fear the poor fellow would have had a severe time of it.
When he went to school he was always the whipping-boy and always the object of his schoolfellows' mockery.
whipping boy
- a person of little importance who is blamed for the errors, incompetence, etc, of others, esp his superiors; scapegoat
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Word Origin
C17: originally referring to a boy who was educated with a prince and who received punishment for any faults committed by the prince
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with whipping boy
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]
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.