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scapegoat

Pronunciation: /ˈskeɪpgəʊt/
Translate scapegoat | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of scapegoat

noun

  • 1a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.
  • 2(in the Bible) a goat sent into the wilderness after the Jewish chief priest had symbolically laid the sins of the people upon it (Lev. 16).

verb

[with object]
  • make a scapegoat of: secret police scapegoated a few of the ringleaders to put an end to the issue

Origin:

mid 16th century: from archaic scape 'escape' + goat

scapegoat in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of scapegoat in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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