n. phr. The person who gets punished for someone else's mistake. "I used to be the whipping boy during my early days at the company," he musingly remembered.
whipping boy
whipping boy A scapegoat, as in This department's always been the whipping boy when things don't go well. This expression alludes to the former practice of keeping a boy to be whipped in place of a prince who was to be punished. [Early 1900s]
whipping boy
A actuality or affair that is abhorrent for problems, generally those acquired by addition or article else. Bobby got annoyed of actuality the whipping boy for the atrocity acquired by his earlier brothers.Video amateur accept become the whipping boy for the agitated behavior displayed by today's youth.Learn more: boy, whipping
a whipping boy
If addition is a whipping boy, bodies accusation them back things go wrong. `There won't be a white paper,' one abbot said yesterday. `It wouldn't break anything. It would aloof accomplish the prime abbot a whipping boy for both the larboard and right.'This is the adventure of how America's admired whipping boy became her admired son. Note: A whipping boy was a boy who was accomplished with a prince and was punished for the prince's mistakes because advisers were not accustomed to hit the prince. Learn more: boy, whipping
a ˈwhipping boy
a actuality who is abhorrent or punished for the mistakes of addition person: The admiral are acutely amenable for what happened, but they’re abiding to acquisition a whipping boy lower down the company. ♢ It was your fault, and I am not activity to be your whipping boy.In the accomplished back a aristocratic prince fabricated a aberration in his lessons, addition boy was aerated (= punished) for his mistakes.Learn more: boy, whipping
whipping boy, a
A scapegoat; one who receives the accusation and/or abuse for another’s mistakes or misdeeds. The appellation comes from the aboriginal convenance of befitting a boy to be aerated in abode of a prince who was to be punished. Sir William Petrie acclimated the appellation figuratively in Ancient Egypt (1914): “With some writers . . . Manetho is the whipping-boy, who charge consistently be flogged back annihilation is not understood.”Learn more: whippingLearn more:
An whipping boy idiom dictionary is a great resource for writers, students, and anyone looking to expand their vocabulary. It contains a list of words with similar meanings with whipping boy, allowing users to choose the best word for their specific context.
Dictionary of similar words, Different wording, Synonyms, Idioms for Idiom, Proverb whipping boy