scapegoat

CEFRC1

/ˈskeɪpˌɡoʊt/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person unfairly blamed for a problem or failure.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Someone unfairly blamed or punished for some failure.

Examples

  • I'm no scapegoat to take it lying down.

  • They're looking for a scapegoat.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈskeɪpˌɡəʊt/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

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

  2. 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.

More examples

In context

  • He is making me a scapegoat for his own poor business decisions and the supply chain disruptions caused by the hurricane!

  • He's always the scapegoat.

  • And Aarõ caſt lottes ouer the .ij. gootes: one lotte for the Lorde, ãd another for a ſcapegoote.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The manager made John the blank for the team's failure, even though John did nothing wrong.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.