whipping boy

as in victim
a person or thing taking the blame for others used the government's economic policies as the whipping boy for every bad decision the company made

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of whipping boy As head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci has become a standard whipping boy for conservatives pushing back against anti-pandemic restrictions, but few politicians have placed him at the center of their outreach to their political base like DeSantis. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2021 Still, having his excoriating assessments collected between hard covers makes for a powerful indictment, the more so because Boehner’s book vividly captures the growing horror of a bartender’s kid who evolved from a reflexive Democrat to a Reagan Republican to a tea party whipping boy. Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2021 The weaponization subcommittee’s foremost target will be the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which during Trump’s presidency became a whipping boy for the right, contradicting the GOP’s claim to champion law and order. Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 21 Feb. 2023 Jamie, the lawyer, is the resident whipping boy, the black sheep whose ambitions surpass his mettle. Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2023 See All Example Sentences for whipping boy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for whipping boy
Noun
  • Paying ransoms does not guarantee a return to normal business operations, and 35% of victims who paid a ransom, according to the in-house analysis of data, either did not receive decryption keys or received corrupted keys.
    Davey Winder, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2025
  • Authorities struggled to identify and process all of the victims.
    arkansasonline.com, arkansasonline.com, 16 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • The Jacksonville Jaguars sacked Super Bowl-winning coach Doug Pederson on Monday in the NFL’s dark annual ritual of finding fall guys after the regular season came to an end Sunday night.
    David K. Li, NBC News, 6 Jan. 2025
  • Watching England as a non-white person can come with the fear that with many of the national team’s historic defeats comes a fall guy.
    Carl Anka, The Athletic, 8 July 2024
Noun
  • The wise-cracking goat escorts the teen on a journey to search for the afikomen, traveling back through layers of seders past, to the original biblical Exodus night.
    Penny Schwartz, Sun Sentinel, 6 Mar. 2025
  • Muslims mark the event by slaughtering sheep or goats.
    Reuters, CNN, 27 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • At least juveniles have an excuse: The human brain isn’t fully developed until age 25.
    Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Canada and China have both questioned the Trump administration’s focus on fentanyl, calling it an excuse to issue his tariffs.
    William Gavin, Quartz, 5 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • With his hefty contract still on the payroll, he’s also become a scapegoat for parent company Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s recent decision to layoff 80 employees.
    Ian Nicholas Quillen, Forbes, 11 Mar. 2025
  • Clearly Trump is using the protesters as a scapegoat for his wider agenda fighting and attacking higher education and the Ivy League education system.
    Jonathan Allen, USA TODAY, 9 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Whipping boy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whipping%20boy. Accessed 19 Mar. 2025.

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