whipping boy

English

Etymology

Middle English wippen "flap violently", from Proto-Germanic wipp-, from Proto-Indo-European wib- "move quickly". Whipping boy first recorded 1647.

Noun

whipping boy (plural whipping boys)

1. Someone punished for the errors of others, historically a boy that was whipped in the stead of a misbehaving prince.

   As the whipping boy, he must take the whippings for the royal heir, Prince Brat.

Synonyms

• scapegoat; see also Thesaurus:scapegoat

Translations

someone punished for the errors of others

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 替罪羊 (zh) (tìzuìyáng)

• Dutch: zondebok (nl) m
• French: lampiste (fr) m or f, pigeon (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Prügelknabe (de) m
• Latin: plāgipatida m
• Russian: ма́льчик для битья́ (ru) m (málʹčik dlja bitʹjá), козел отпуще́ния m (kozel otpuščénija); крайний (ru) m (krajnij), стре́лочник (ru) m (stréločnik)
• Swedish: strykpojke (sv) c, strykgosse (sv) c