scapegoatscape‧goat /ˈskeɪpɡəʊt $ -ɡoʊt/ noun [countable] 
She believed she had been made a scapegoat for what happened.—scapegoat verb [transitive]
WORD ORIGINscapegoat
Origin:
1500-1600 scape (from scape ‘to get away’ (13-20 centuries), from escape) + goat; meant as a translation of Hebrew 'azazel (probably the name of an evil spirit in the Bible), as if it were 'ez 'ozel ‘goat that leaves’EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- The captain was just a scapegoat. The real villains were the people in charge of the shipping company.
- The public is looking for a scapegoat, but no one will be accused until a full inquiry has been held.
- They'll be looking for a scapegoat if things don't go their way.
- As for the violence in the ancestral cities, it was women who were its most quiet victims and most silent scapegoats.
- Bella was just an excuse; a scapegoat.
- Demagogic governments sometimes paint foreigners as scapegoats, leading to nationalization or laws restricting foreign investment.
- I would have been the scapegoat for anything bad they wrote afterwards.
- If your company or agency anticipates failure, you and your colleagues will always be looking for scapegoats.
- These factors must bulk larger in the explanation of depopulation than the sixteenth-century writers' scapegoat, the rapacious landlords.
- We are not looking for scapegoats in this case.
Longman Language Activatorsomeone who is unfairly blamed for something
someone who is unfairly blamed or punished for something, because people want to see that someone is blamed or punished for it: · The captain was just a scapegoat. The real villains were the people in charge of the shipping company.· The public is looking for a scapegoat, but no one will be accused until a full inquiry has been held.
especially American someone who is punished for someone else's crime or mistake, because people have deliberately made it look as if he or she is responsible: · Journalists asked if the Secretary of State was going be the fall guy for the President's secret arms deal.· Benson made it clear he does not intend to be the fall guy.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY She believed she had been made a scapegoat for what happened.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSVERB
someone who is blamed for something bad that happens, even if it is not their faultscapegoat for She believed she had been made a scapegoat for what happened.· I could easily have become a scapegoat.· He has become a scapegoat and an excuse, so that romantic writers can maintain their vision of a lost golden age.· They became scapegoats for crimes committed and were widely bruited as potential subversives.· Too often she became a scapegoat for anger not strictly her due.· But local authority associations, professional bodies and voluntary groups must not become scapegoats for government complacency and inaction.· But now, with unemployment touching 10 percent and rising, undeclared work and workers have become a political scapegoat.· John Lahr made the point to me that Ken became a kind of scapegoat for the problems of the play.
· Many of them were, with reason, frightened of the Shahs desperate attempt to find scapegoats to appease the mobs.
· He claimed there was a plot to make him a scapegoat for economic failures.· As do many familiar with the Khobar tragedy, the senior officer believes that President Clinton is making a scapegoat of Schwalier.· Perhaps he simply died; but perhaps also he was made a scapegoat for his Persian policy.· Janice was to be made a scapegoat.· Middleton said he had not arrived in Jedburgh until after the crime had been committed and was being made the scapegoat.· The Boro's second leading scorer felt he had been made a scapegoat for the home defeat by Watford.· As a result the women suffer; they are made the scapegoats of damaged Izzat.· I do so because I believe she has been made a scapegoat for what happened.
She believed she had been made a scapegoat for what happened.—scapegoat verb [transitive]