Scapegoat definition

Scapegoat





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4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Scapegoat \Scape"goat`\, n. [Scape (for escape) + goat.]
     1. (Jewish Antiq.) A goat upon whose head were symbolically
        placed the sins of the people, after which he was suffered
        to escape into the wilderness. --Lev. xvi. 10.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. Hence, a person or thing that is made to bear blame for
        others. --Tennyson.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  scapegoat
       n : someone punished for the errors of others [syn: {whipping
           boy}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  40 Moby Thesaurus words for "scapegoat":
     burnt offering, collection, drink offering, dupe, ex voto offering,
     fall guy, front, goat, gull, heave offering, hecatomb, holocaust,
     human sacrifice, immolation, incense, infanticide, libation,
     mactation, man of straw, mark, oblation, offering, offertory,
     patsy, peace offering, piacular offering, sacramental offering,
     sacrifice, self-immolation, self-sacrifice, straw man, sucker,
     suttee, sutteeism, target, thank offering, victim, votive offering,
     whipping boy, whole offering
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Scapegoat
     Lev. 16:8-26; R.V., "the goat for Azazel" (q.v.), the name given
     to the goat which was taken away into the wilderness on the day
     of Atonement (16:20-22). The priest made atonement over the
     scapegoat, laying Israel's guilt upon it, and then sent it away,
     the goat bearing "upon him all their iniquities unto a land not
     inhabited."
     
       At a later period an evasion or modification of the law of
     Moses was introduced by the Jews. "The goat was conducted to a
     mountain named Tzuk, situated at a distance of ten Sabbath days'
     journey, or about six and a half English miles, from Jerusalem.
     At this place the Judean desert was supposed to commence; and
     the man in whose charge the goat was sent out, while setting him
     free, was instructed to push the unhappy beast down the slope of
     the mountain side, which was so steep as to insure the death of
     the goat, whose bones were broken by the fall. The reason of
     this barbarous custom was that on one occasion the scapegoat
     returned to Jerusalem after being set free, which was considered
     such an evil omen that its recurrence was prevented for the
     future by the death of the goat" (Twenty-one Years' Work in the
     Holy Land). This mountain is now called el-Muntar.
     

















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