scapegoat

plural scapegoats

1. 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 xvj:[8], folio XXIX, verso

   1 more example

   […]; 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 edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 64

2. 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!

   2 more examples

   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

   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

   Synonyms: fall guy, patsy, whipping boy

present singular third person scapegoats · participle present scapegoating · participle past scapegoated · past scapegoated

1. intransitivetransitiveTo unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure; to make a scapegoat of.

   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

   4 more examples

   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

   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

   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 Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 23 Feb 2024