Meaning

1 senses

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

    zum Sündenbock machen

    де́лать козлом отпущенияdélatʹ kozlom otpuščenija

Examples

22 sentences

  1. They're looking for a scapegoat.

    ruОни ищут козла отпущения. — marafon

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. You're the scapegoat.

    ruТы козёл отпущения. — marafon

    deDu bist der Sündenbock. — al_ex_an_der

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Dictators use marginalized populations as scapegoats.

    stanyas · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. Why am I always the scapegoat?

    ruПочему я всегда козёл отпущения? — marafon

    deWarum bin ich immer der Sündenbock? — Rovo

    Miktsoanit · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. They simply need to find a scapegoat.

    ruИм просто нужно найти стрелочника. — marafon

    Eldad · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
to blame or punish for the errors of others:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
to blame or punish for the errors of others:

Origin

From scape + goat; coined by English biblical scholar and translator William Tyndale, inte

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.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

scapegoats, scapegoating, scapegoated, scapegoated
Base formscapegoat · to scapegoat
3rd person singularscapegoats
Present participlescapegoating
Past simplescapegoated
Past participlescapegoated

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theyscapegoat
he, she, itscapegoats

Past simpleLesson

all personsscapegoated

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave scapegoated
he, she, ithas scapegoated

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill scapegoat

Word family

7 related words
RelatedescapeB1scapegoatablescapegoaterscapegoatingscapegoatismblameshiftsacrificial lamb

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
scantscantilyscapulascarB2scarab

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

scapegoat — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto