What does scapegoat mean?
Definitions for scapegoat
ˈskeɪpˌgoʊtscape·goat
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word scapegoat.
Princeton's WordNet
scapegoat, whipping boynoun
someone who is punished for the errors of others
Wiktionary
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.
scapegoatnoun
Someone punished for the error or errors of someone else.
He is making me a scapegoat.
scapegoatverb
To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.
scapegoatverb
To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.
Wikipedia
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.
ChatGPT
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 Dictionary
Scapegoatnoun
a goat upon whose head were symbolically placed the sins of the people, after which he was suffered to escape into the wilderness
Scapegoatnoun
hence, a person or thing that is made to bear blame for others
Etymology: [Scape (for escape) + goat.]
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
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
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of scapegoat in Chaldean Numerology is: 8
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of scapegoat in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6
Examples of scapegoat in a Sentence
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.
I am not going to let them use Steve as a scapegoat to score political points when I know him and know his family, i don't think Steve Scalise has a racist bone in his body.
The NSPV notes that the political government is looking for a scapegoat in connection with the attacks in Zaventem, as a trade union we can only be outraged about this state of affairs. [We are] heartbroken to establish that police would be pilloried without any kind of defense.
As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don't look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background, we can't afford to go down that path. It won't deliver the economy we want, or the security we want, but most of all, it contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world.
After three years of (HP CEO) Meg Whitman's stonewalling, is this it?, hP's claim is finally laid bare for what it is -- a desperate search for a scapegoat for its own errors and incompetence.
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Translations for scapegoat
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- كبش فداءArabic
- obětní beránekCzech
- syndebukDanish
- Prügelknabe, SündenbockGerman
- αποδιοπομπαίος τράγος, εξιλαστήριο θύμαGreek
- propeka kaproEsperanto
- chivo expiatorio, cabeza de turcoSpanish
- ahuntz-buruBasque
- syntipukki, sysätä, syyFinnish
- utiliser, quelqu'un, faire, bouc émissaireFrench
- שעיר לעזאזלHebrew
- bűnbakHungarian
- kambing hitamIndonesian
- blóraböggullIcelandic
- capro emissario, capro espiatorio, fare da capro espiatorioItalian
- 贖罪の山羊, スケープゴート, 生贄, 身代わりJapanese
- SënnebockLuxembourgish, Letzeburgesch
- atpirkimo ožysLithuanian
- grēkāzisLatvian
- uaparengaMāori
- zondebokDutch
- syndebukkNorwegian
- kozioł ofiarnyPolish
- [[fazer]] [[de]] [[bode expiatório]], bode expiatórioPortuguese
- козел отпущения, делать козлом отпущения, стре́лочник, мальчик для битья, козёл отпуще́нияRussian
- жртвени јарац, žrtveni jarac, жртвено јање, žrtveno janjeSerbo-Croatian
- syndabockSwedish
- แพะรับบาปThai
- şamar oğlanı, günah keçisiTurkish
- козел відпущенняUkrainian
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"scapegoat." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/scapegoat>.
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