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# scapegoat

noun (a scapegoat, scapegoats); verb (scapegoat, scapegoats, scapegoated, scapegoating)

«scapegoat» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A person or group blamed for something bad that is not really their fault, often so others escape blame. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#m1)
2. (Bible) In the Old Testament (Leviticus 16), on the Day of Atonement the priest put the people's sins on a goat and sent it into the desert. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#m2)
3. (verb) To unfairly blame someone this way. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#m3)

### In the lessons

In ethics, history and anti-bullying lessons, scapegoating is unfair: in history whole groups, such as Jews in Nazi Germany, were wrongly blamed for a country's problems. In everyday life a child can be made the scapegoat for a broken window. Phrases: «make someone a scapegoat», «used as a scapegoat».

### Examples

- The new boy was made the scapegoat for the broken window. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#x1)
- Don't scapegoat your sister for your mess. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#x2)
- In history, minorities were often used as scapegoats. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#x3)
- In the Bible the scapegoat carried the people's sins into the wilderness. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#x4)
- The coach became the scapegoat when the team lost. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#x5)
- Scapegoating someone is a kind of bullying. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/#x6)

### Note

Countable: scapegoats. One word. Verb: «scapegoat», and «scapegoating» for the act. Not the same as «escape goat».

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «scapegoat» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scapegoat/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«scapegoat» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/scapegoat.html) on Mova free.