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. Someone punished for the error or errors of someone else.
- Verb. (transitive) To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.
- Verb. (transitive) To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.
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This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.