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.
Derivatives:
scapegoater n.
Etymology: scape (archaic, escape) + GOAT, the goat that escapes