| 释义 |
whipping boy  nounA person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence of others: I may end up as the whipping boy if things go wrong...- Of course, you are an innocent victim, the whipping boy to be punished for other people's crimes.
- It's tempting to blame those familiar whipping boys: television and the movies.
- It is always easy to blame the politicians, they have become our favourite whipping boys, but we are just as guilty as them in our failure to examine social phenomena rigorously.
Origin Extended use of the original term (mid 17th century) denoting a boy educated with a young prince or other royal person and punished instead of him. |