SACRIFICIAL

[adjective] [not gradable]The priest held up the head of the sacrificial goat.(figurative) It's unfair that Ted has been made a sacrificial victim (= one who has to suffer because of something that someone else has done) - it was his boss who should have been dismissed.A sacrificial lamb is someone or something put forward to people in authority with the expectation that they will remove or destroy it, esp. in order to prevent someone or something else being removed or destroyed .We knew the department would be a sacrificial lamb when it came time to cut staff.