whipping boy

See more synonyms for whipping boy on Thesaurus.com

noun

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

First recorded in 1640–50

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for whipping boy

scapegoat, patsy, dupe, goat, mark, sacrifice, sucker, target, victim

Examples from the Web for whipping boy

Historical Examples of whipping boy

But she's had to understand that I won't be her friend's whipping-boy.
Regiment of Women
Clemence Dane
It's an old story; the House of Commons must always have its whipping-boy.
Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100, April 4, 1891
Various
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.
In Darkest Africa, Vol. 2; or, The quest, rescue and retreat of Emin, governor of Equatoria
Henry Morton Stanley
When he went to school he was always the whipping-boy and always the object of his schoolfellows' mockery.
Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology
C. G. Jung

British Dictionary definitions for whipping boy

whipping boy

noun

a person of little importance who is blamed for the errors, incompetence, etc, of others, esp his superiors; scapegoat

Word Origin for whipping boy

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]