Associations to the word «Scapegoat»

Wiktionary

SCAPEGOAT, noun. 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.
SCAPEGOAT, noun. Someone punished for the error or errors of someone else.
SCAPEGOAT, verb. (transitive) To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.
SCAPEGOAT, verb. (transitive) To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.

Dictionary definition

SCAPEGOAT, noun. Someone who is punished for the errors of others.

Wise words

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.
Noam Chomsky