In the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed.

(transitive, intransitive) To unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure; to make a scapegoat of.

Third-person singular simple present indicative form of scapegoat

plural of scapegoat

plural of scapegoatism

A person who makes a scapegoat of another person (punishes someone for another's wrongdoing)

The practice of holding somebody accountable as a scapegoat.

Able to be made into a scapegoat.

plural of scapegoater

present participle of scapegoat