<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>A person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.</li><li>Chiefly Biblical: a goat let loose in the wilderness on Yom Kippur after the high priest symbolically laid the sins of the people on its head. (Leviticus 16:8,10,26)</li></ul><p><strong>Verb:</strong></p><ul><li>(used with object) To make a scapegoat of: Strike leaders tried to scapegoat foreign competitors.</li></ul>