SCAPEGOAT


Meaning of SCAPEGOAT in English

■ noun

1》 a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings or mistakes of others.

2》 (in the Bible) a goat sent into the wilderness after the Jewish chief priest had symbolically laid the sins of the people upon it (Lev. 16).

■ verb make a ~ of.

Origin

C16: from archaic scape 'escape' + goat .

Concise Oxford English vocab.      Сжатый оксфордский словарь английского языка.