Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A scapegoat.
- noun A boy formerly raised with a prince or other young nobleman and whipped for the latter's misdeeds.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Someone punished for the errors of others.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone who is punished for the errors of others
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Middle English wippen "flap violently", from Proto-Germanic wipp-, from Proto-Indo-European wib- "move quickly". Whipping boy first recorded 1647.
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Examples
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