/skayp"goht'/ , n.
1. a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.
2. Chiefly Biblical. a goat let loose in the wilderness on Yom Kippur after the high priest symbolically laid the sins of the people on its head. Lev. 16:8,10,26.
v.t.
3. to make a scapegoat of: Strike leaders tried to scapegoat foreign competitors.
[ 1520-30; SCAPE 2 + GOAT ]