scapegoat

make (one) the scapegoat (for something)

To wrongly attribute all of the blame for some negative situation or outcome to one particular person, whether or not they deserve some (or any) of the blame at all. Once it was discovered that I played a part in developing the company's scheme that robbed millions of people of their pensions, the mainstream media made me the scapegoat for the whole thing. Instead of trying to make someone the scapegoat for this problem, why don't you spend that energy trying to come up with a solution?
See also: make, scapegoat
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

make someone the scapegoat for something

to make someone take the blame for something. They made Tom the scapegoat for the whole affair. It wasn't all his fault. Don't try to make me the scapegoat. I'll tell who really did it.
See also: make, scapegoat
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • make (one) the scapegoat (for something)
  • lay the blame on
  • lay the blame on (one)
  • place the blame for (something) on (someone or something)
  • place the blame on (someone or something) for (something)
  • be to blame
  • to blame, be
  • to blame
  • more sinned against than sinner
  • more sinned against than sinning
References in periodicals archive
The scapegoat can really have little complaint at this point; it should recognise that this was bound to happen.
The Scapegoat frame is decorated with Old Testament quotations and symbolic designs including a dove, a candlestick and a flower.
It is frequently more expedient for a group to designate a scapegoat rather than deal with difficulties and challenges more directly.
Is it possible to be made a scapegoat for a state of affairs which has never occurred?
SCAPEGOATS FOR A PROFESSION: UNCOVERING PROCEDURAL INJUSTICE
Heyns sees partnerships at the centre of Dickens's design, but loneliness and exclusion at its base; and scapegoats are the 'unacknowledged energants of the plot' (p.
The economic fallout of scapegoat litigation will reduce the overall size of the U.S.
Hence, some organizations are taking the path of least resistance in looking for and finding red-ink scapegoats. Identify those departments with the greatest deficit budgets and you'll have found the source of the problem!
The two-bedroom cottage on High Street, Scapegoat Hill is being marketed by Bramleys for PS350,000.
It doesn't matter whether he was the ringmaster or scapegoat, he was still heavily involved in the fixing.
Charlie Campbell (author); SCAPEGOAT; The Overlook Press (Nonfiction: Social Sciences) $19.95 ISBN: 9781590207161
The Welsh-speaking star, who hails from Cardiff, plays two lookalikes in a new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel The Scapegoat.
CLEARED nurse Rebecca Leighton was made a "scapegoat", her lawyer said yesterday.
He added that "By forcing through pay cuts and seeking to increase pension contributions on top of heavy job losses, the Government is making public servants the scapegoat for a financial crisis they played no part in causing."
One comes from Rene Girards "scapegoat mechanism." According to Girard, all cultures avoid disintegrating violence and maintain social cohesion by creating a scapegoat whom they kill.