scapegoat

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: scape=goat

CIDE DICTIONARY

scapegoat, n. [Scape (for escape) + goat.].

•  A goat upon whose head were symbolically placed the sins of the people, after which he was suffered to escape into the wilderness.  Lev. xvi. 10.  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence, a person or thing that is made to bear blame for others.  Tennyson.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

scapegoat, n. & v.
--n.
1 a person bearing the blame for the sins, shortcomings, etc. of others, esp. as an expedient.
2 Bibl. a goat sent into the wilderness after the Jewish chief priest had symbolically laid the sins of the people upon it (Lev. 16).
--v.tr. make a scapegoat of.

Derivative

scapegoater n.

Etymology

scape (archaic, = escape) + GOAT, = the goat that escapes

THESAURUS

scapegoat

burnt offering, collection, drink offering, dupe, ex voto offering, fall guy, front, goat, gull, heave offering, hecatomb, holocaust, human sacrifice, immolation, incense, infanticide, libation, mactation, man of straw, mark, oblation, offering, offertory, patsy, peace offering, piacular offering, sacramental offering, sacrifice, self-immolation, self-sacrifice, straw man, sucker, suttee, sutteeism, target, thank offering, victim, votive offering, whipping boy, whole offering

ROGET THESAURUS

scapegoat

Substitution

N substitution, commutation, supplanting, metaphor, metonymy, substitute, ersatz, makeshift, temporary expedient, replacement, succedaneum, shift, pis aller, stopgap, jury rigging, jury mast, locum tenens, warming pan, dummy, scapegoat, double, changeling, quid pro quo, alternative, representative, palimpsest, price, purchase money, consideration, equivalent, substituted, ersatz, phony, vicarious, subdititious, instead, in place of, in lieu of, in the stead of, in the room of, faute de mieux.

Atonement

N atonement, reparation, compromise, composition, compensation, quittance, quits, expiation, redemption, reclamation, conciliation, propitiation, indemnification, redress, amends, apology, amende honorable, satisfaction, peace offering, sin offering, burnt offering, scapegoat, sacrifice, penance, fasting, maceration, sackcloth and ashes, white sheet, shrift, flagellation, lustration, purgation, purgatory.