What does whipping boy mean?
Definitions for whipping boy
whip·ping boy
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word whipping boy.
Princeton's WordNet
scapegoat, whipping boynoun
someone who is punished for the errors of others
Wiktionary
whipping boynoun
Someone punished for the errors of others.
Etymology: Middle English wippen "flap violently", from Proto-Germanic wipp-, from Proto-Indo-European wib- "move quickly". Whipping boy first recorded 1647.
Wikipedia
whipping boy
A whipping boy was a young boy educated with a prince and punished in his place.
ChatGPT
whipping boy
A whipping boy is a person who is unfairly or unjustly blamed or punished for the errors, misconduct, or failures of others. This term originates from a historical practice where a boy, usually of lower status, was raised alongside a prince or young noble and received punishment on behalf of the prince when he misbehaved, since corporal punishment could not be administered to royalty.
Wikidata
Whipping boy
A whipping boy was a young boy who was assigned to a young prince and was punished when the prince misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling. Whipping boys were established in the English court during the monarchies of the 15th century and 16th centuries. They were created because of the idea of the divine right of kings, which stated that kings were appointed by God, and implied that no one but the king was worthy of punishing the king’s son. Since the king was rarely around to punish his son when necessary, tutors to the young prince found it extremely difficult to enforce rules or learning. Whipping boys were generally of high status, and were educated with the prince from birth. Because the prince and whipping boy grew up together they usually formed a strong emotional bond, especially since the prince usually did not have playmates as other children would have had. The strong bond that developed between a prince and his whipping boy dramatically increased the effectiveness of using a whipping boy as a form of punishment for a prince. The idea of the whipping boys was that seeing a friend being whipped or beaten for something that he had done wrong would be likely to ensure that the prince would not make the same mistake again.
Suggested Resources
whipping boy
Song lyrics by whipping boy -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by whipping boy on the Lyrics.com website.
Matched Categories
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of whipping boy in Chaldean Numerology is: 2
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of whipping boy in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9
Examples of whipping boy in a Sentence
We can not help but think it not coincidental that the decision by Yale University officials to seek expulsion of the captain of Yale University basketball team followed by little more than a month the report of the Association of American Universities( AAU) which was highly critical of the incidence of sexual assault on the Yale University campus, and the Yale University President's promise, in response, to' redouble our efforts,' from what appears, Jack Montague has been pilloried as a' whipping boy' for a campus problem that has galvanized national attention.
Translations for whipping boy
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"whipping boy." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/whipping+boy>.
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