Definitions for scapegoat
ˈskeɪpˌgoʊtscape·goat

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:4.0 / 3 votes

1. scapegoat, whipping boynoun

   someone who is punished for the errors of others

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. scapegoatnoun

   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.

2. scapegoatnoun

   Someone punished for the error or errors of someone else.

   He is making me a scapegoat.

3. scapegoatverb

   To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.

4. scapegoatverb

   To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Scapegoat

   In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of the community. Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness. Practices with some similarities to the scapegoat ritual also appear in Ancient Greece and Ebla.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. scapegoat

   A scapegoat is a person or group unjustly blamed for something or made to bear the blame for the mistakes or faults of others. The term has its origins in ancient Jewish customs, where a goat was symbolically burdened with the sins of the people then driven into the wilderness in an act of atonement.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. Scapegoatnoun

   a goat upon whose head were symbolically placed the sins of the people, after which he was suffered to escape into the wilderness

2. Scapegoatnoun

   hence, a person or thing that is made to bear blame for others

3. Etymology: [Scape (for escape) + goat.]

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Scapegoat

   skāp′gōt, n. a goat on which, once a year, the Jewish high-priest laid symbolically the sins of the people, and which was then allowed to escape into the wilderness (Levit. xvi.): one who is made to bear the misdeeds of another. [Escape and goat.]

Matched Categories

1. • Victim

How to pronounce scapegoat?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say scapegoat in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of scapegoat in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of scapegoat in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of scapegoat in a Sentence

1. Peter Henning:

   They are trying to ferret out information from the midlevel employees who may know what happened but are fearful of being made a scapegoat.

2. Reginald Ellis:

   It’s important that that’s taught. But what I think is not good is to scapegoat students based on skin color. what I find, even at a historically Black college, the vast majority of students have not really been exposed to much African American history and experience.

3. Edward Hoagland:

   Animals used to provide a lowlife way to kill and get away with it, as they do still, but, more intriguingly, for some people they are an aperture through which wounds drain. The scapegoat of olden times, driven off for the bystanders sins, has become a tender thing, a running injury. There, running away is me: hurt it and you are hurting me.

4. Sarah Henchoz:

   I have had some clients with staff resistant to being a senior manager, worried they are going to be kept awake at night about what their team is doing, and if something goes wrong, will they be the scapegoat.

5. Rod Serling:

   The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices -- to be found in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own -- for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.

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References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=scapegoat
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Scapegoat
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scapegoat
6. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=scapegoat