whipping boy

whipping boy

A person or thing that is blamed for problems, often those caused by someone or something else. Bobby got tired of being the whipping boy for the mischief caused by his older brothers. Video games have become the whipping boy for the violent behavior displayed by today's youth.
See also: boy, whipping
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

whipping boy

Fig. someone who is punished for someone else's misdeeds. The president has turned out to be the whipping boy for his party.
See also: boy, whipping
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

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]
See also: boy, whipping
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

a whipping boy

If someone is a whipping boy, people blame them when things go wrong. `There won't be a white paper,' one minister said yesterday. `It wouldn't solve anything. It would just make the prime minister a whipping boy for both the left and right.' This is the story of how America's favorite whipping boy became her favorite son. Note: A whipping boy was a boy who was educated with a prince and was punished for the prince's mistakes because tutors were not allowed to hit the prince.
See also: boy, whipping
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

a ˈwhipping boy

a person who is blamed or punished for the mistakes of another person: The directors are clearly responsible for what happened, but they’re sure to find a whipping boy lower down the company. It was your fault, and I am not going to be your whipping boy.In the past when a royal prince made a mistake in his lessons, another boy was whipped (= punished) for his mistakes.
See also: boy, whipping
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

whipping boy, a

A scapegoat; one who receives the blame and/or punishment for another’s mistakes or misdeeds. The term comes from the early practice of keeping a boy to be whipped in place of a prince who was to be punished. Sir William Petrie used the term figuratively in Ancient Egypt (1914): “With some writers . . . Manetho is the whipping-boy, who must always be flogged when anything is not understood.”
See also: whipping
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a whipping boy
  • whipping boy, a
  • do (one) a mischief
  • do somebody/yourself a mischief
  • do someone a mischief
  • mischief
  • thank you for sharing
  • thanks for sharing
  • a small cog in a large wheel
  • cog in the wheel or machine
References in periodicals archive
A Labour politician brought out the whipping boy to claim food prices would go up after Brexit.
Need an excuse? Just blame Brexit
A gentleman known as William Murray, in his youth, was King Charles I's whipping boy. A disagreeable concept, a despicable, cowardly way of doing things, one is inclined to think.
Whipping a column into shape
This chapter, like the rest of the book, transforms the now rich body of work on sentimentality into a way to wrestle with what Barnes presents as a distinctively American paradox: Love's Whipping Boy illuminates the mechanisms by which sentimentality facilitates collaborations that work against one's own interest (such as willingly cooperating with enemies of one's country), but at the same time it facilitates the constitution of a sense of self founded upon the bonds of shared sympathy.
Love's Whipping Boy: Violence and Sentimentality in the American Imagination
The arguments presented in "The Whipping Boy" apply equally to the wars on drugs and guns.
Letters
This rankles Republicans, who see North Korea (along with Cuba) as their last great Communist whipping boy. South Korea's December 1997 election of Kim Dae Jung, a democracy advocate and former political prisoner, did not sit well with Republicans, either.
The Missile that Wasn't
From the time of John Dryden's deprecatory criticism of the Metaphysical poets, Cleveland has been a whipping boy for them, largely because his conceits are profuse and cosmetic rather than integral to his thought.
Cleveland, John
DOCTORS said yesterday the Health Secretary is using GPs as "the whipping boy" over the A&E crisis because he failed over the 111 nonemergency number,
Hunt 'using GPs as A&E scapegoat' HEALTH
The Rev Martin Reynolds said his friend Dr Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, has been made a "whipping boy" in the row.
Rev calls for 'whipping boy' openly gay dean to be made bishop in Wales
It was during Berbatov's barren run last term that Ferguson wondered whether the Bulgarian was delighted to carry on being the 'whipping boy' as United fans joined pundits in dishing out stick to him over his performances.
Ferguson says won't be surprised if Berbatov quits Man U
It wasn't pleasant people using me as a whipping boy. But, you know what, it wasn't a big deal" - Jonathan Ross on the crude calls he and Russell Brand made to actor Andrew Sachs.
They say
The whipping boy Gordon Brown hasn't been blamed for the bad weather.
Tories all the same
But Eddings thinks that methyl bromide is "a whipping boy." He says, "The amount from commercial agriculture that goes into the atmosphere is a very small percentage of the overall amount.
Strawberry fields: are we doomed to use methyl bromide ... forever?
British food has often been seen as the whipping boy of international cuisine, but it appears we have found a way to impress in the kitchen - we have simply stolen dishes from other countries.
Tasty treats
But this isn't the fault of the sick and they shouldn't be used as the whipping boy.
Disability is not a bonus
Television violence is a whipping boy, a stand-in for other clashes, real or imagined.
The Whipping Boy