scapegoat
UK/ˈskeɪpˌɡəʊt//ˈskeɪpˌɡoʊt/
scapegoat noun: in the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed.
Noun
scapegoat (plural scapegoats)
- In the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed.
- And Aarõ caſt lottes ouer the .ij. gootes: one lotte for the Lorde, ãd another for a ſcapegoote.1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Leuiticus...
- […]; alluding herein unto the heart of man, and the precious bloud of our Saviour; who was typified indeed by the Goat that was ſlain, and the ſcape Goat in the wilderneſſe;1650, Thomas Browne, “Compendiously of Sundry Other Common Tenents, Concerning Minerall and Terreous Bodies, Which Examined, Prove Either False or Dubious”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd...
- Someone unfairly blamed or punished for some failure.
- He is making me a scapegoat for his own poor business decisions and the supply chain disruptions caused by the hurricane!
- The new Secretary of State had been long sick of the perfidy and levity of the First Lord of the Treasury, and began to fear that he might be made a scapegoat to save the old intriguer who, imbecile as he seemed, never wanted dexterity where danger was to be avoided.1834, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham
- Synonyms:
- fall guy, patsy, whipping boy
Verb
scapegoat (third-person singular simple present scapegoats, present participle scapegoating, simple past and past participle scapegoated)
- To unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure; to make a scapegoat of.
- People tend to fear and then to scapegoat ... groups which seem to them to be fundamentally different from their own.1950, Rachel Davis DuBois, Neighbors in Action: A Manual for Local Leaders in Intergroup Relations, page 37
- They had been used for centuries to justify or rationalize the behavior of that status and conversely to scapegoat and blame some other category of people.1975, Richard M. Harris, Adam Kendon, Mary Ritchie Key, Organization of Behavior in Face-to-face Interaction, page 66
scapegoat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
scapegoat in Hindi
- someone blamed for someone else's error(s)
- बकरा bakrā
scapegoat in Tamil
- பலியாடு
scapegoat in Marathi
- someone blamed for someone else's error(s)
- बळीचा बकरा baḷīcā bakrā
scapegoat in Urdu
- قربانی کا بکرا, بے قصور ملزم
More languagesFewer languages
- scapegoat in Bengali
- বলির পাঁঠা
- scapegoat in Malayalam
- ബലിയാട് baliyāṭŭ, ബലിയാടാക്കുക baliyāṭākkuka
- scapegoat in Kannada
- ಹಳಿಹೊರುಗ, ತಪ್ಪುಹೊರುಗ, ಬಲಿಪಶು, ಮತ್ತೊಬ್ಬರ ತಪ್ಪಿಗೆ ಶಿಕ್ಷೆ ಅನುಭವಿಸುವವ
- scapegoat in Gujarati
- બલિનો બકરો
- scapegoat in Tagalog
- bagsakan ng sisi
- scapegoat in Arabic
- كَبْش فِدَاء kabš fidāʔ
- scapegoat in Indonesian
- kambing hitam
- scapegoat in Thai
- แพะรับบาป pɛ́-ráp-bàap, แพะ pɛ́
- scapegoat in Vietnamese
- con dê gánh tội, bia đỡ đạn
Examples of scapegoat in a sentence
- Corbett says Railtrack was under great pressure in the aftermath, as it was the scapegoat even though the signal had been working properly.2026 March 4, Christian Wolmar, “Railtrack: what really happened”, in RAIL, number 1056, page 53:
- And I want to add, as we make these changes, we work together to improve this system, that our intention is not scapegoating and finger-pointing.1992, George H.W. Bush, State of the Union Address:
- Then either the world or others or the self becomes the target for the human tendency to scapegoat.2004, Yvonne M. Agazarian, Systems-Centered Therapy for Groups, page 208:
- The question we should be asking is: who benefits when migrants and refugees are scapegoated for anger about housing?2023 December 11, Rory Hearne, “Ireland’s housing crisis is a disaster for its people – and a gift to far-right fearmongers”, in The...
Synonyms of scapegoat
Forms of scapegoat
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scapegoats |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scapegoats |
| present participle | scapegoating |
| past participle | scapegoated |
| past | scapegoated |
Origin of scapegoat
From scape + goat; coined by English biblical scholar and translator William Tyndale, interpreting Biblical Hebrew עֲזָאזֵל (“azazél”) (Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26), from an interpretation as coming from עֵז (ez, “goat”) and אוזל (ozél, “escapes”). First attested 1530. Compare English scapegrace, scapegallows.
Words formed from scapegoat
Questions about scapegoat
- What does scapegoat mean?
- Scapegoat means in the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed.
- What is scapegoat in Hindi?
- Scapegoat in Hindi is बकरा (bakrā). See Scapegoat meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use scapegoat in a sentence?
- Corbett says Railtrack was under great pressure in the aftermath, as it was the scapegoat even though the signal had been working properly.
- What part of speech is scapegoat?
- Scapegoat can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scapegoat?
- Scapegoat is pronounced /ˈskeɪpˌɡoʊt/ (US).
- What is the plural of scapegoat?
- The plural of scapegoat is scapegoats.
Words near scapegoat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scapegoat (page history and authors); scapegoat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scapegoat (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scapegoat (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scapegoat (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scapegoat (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scapegoat.ogg, en-au-scapegoat.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scapegoat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scapegoat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.