Blame Meaning
/bleɪm/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounCensure.
nounCulpability for something negative or undesirable.
Sentence Examples
Censorious people delight in casting blame.
You have no one but yourself to blame.
She doesn't blame anyone for her father's death.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The manager tried to ____ the intern for the mistake he himself had made.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You should not ____ yourself for the accident, as it was not your fault.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English blame, borrowed from Old French blame, blasme, produced from the verb blasmer, which in turn is derived from Late Latin blastēmāre, variant of blasphēmāre, from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō). Doublet of blaspheme. Displaced native Old English tǣling (“blame”) and tǣlan (“to blame”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighbouring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces."
— 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 8:
"That was the year that Sir Richard was writing his volume on Domestic Life in Tartary. The critics all blamed it for a lack of concentration."
— 1919, Saki, ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace:
"Have to catch an early train, got to be to work by nine
And if I had an airplane, I still couldn't make it on time
'Cause it takes me so long just to figure out what I'm gonna wear
Blame it on the train, but the boss is already there"
— 1985 December 23, Prince, “Manic Monday”, in Different Light, performed by The Bangles:
"though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame, yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...]."
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
"I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming."
— 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 106:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The manager tried to ____ the intern for the mistake he himself had made.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You should not ____ yourself for the accident, as it was not your fault.