Meaning & use
sacrificial lamb
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Meanings
nouncountablefigurative
A person blamed, dismissed or put at risk so that other more powerful people can avoid trouble.
Grammar: Countable: a sacrificial lamb, several sacrificial lambs.
Patterns
- a sacrificial lamb for something
- serve as a sacrificial lamb
The junior accountant became the sacrificial lamb when the audit found errors.
Critics said the coach was a sacrificial lamb for the club's bad management.
No one wants to be the sacrificial lamb in a hostile meeting.
nouncountablefigurative
A candidate or team put forward in a contest they are almost certain to lose, in order to protect a stronger one.
Grammar: Common in politics and sport.
Patterns
- run as a sacrificial lamb
The party ran a sacrificial lamb in the safe seat of the opposition.
Playing a weak side in the cup match, the manager treated it as a sacrificial lamb.
She entered as the sacrificial lamb against the world champion.
nouncountablereligion
A young sheep killed as a religious offering to a god.
Grammar: Literal sense in religious or historical writing.
Patterns
- offer a sacrificial lamb
In the ancient ritual, a sacrificial lamb was offered at dawn.
The priest chose a sacrificial lamb without any blemish.
The festival recalls the sacrificial lamb of the old story.
Word forms
| plural | sacrificial lambs |
|---|
Common combinations
- serve as a sacrificial lamb
- He served as a sacrificial lamb for the bank's mistakes.
- offer up a sacrificial lamb
- The board offered up a sacrificial lamb to calm shareholders.
- treat someone as a sacrificial lamb
- They treated the new hire as a sacrificial lamb.
- a political sacrificial lamb
- She was a political sacrificial lamb in the election.
Synonyms and how they differ
- scapegoat
- A scapegoat is a person blamed for others' faults, while a sacrificial lamb may also be chosen deliberately in a contest.
- fall guy
- Fall guy is slang for someone left to take the blame for a plan.
- patsy
- Patsy suggests someone easily fooled into taking the blame.
- victim
- Victim is general and does not imply being chosen for sacrifice.
Opposites
Word family
- sacrifice noun
- giving up something valuable
- sacrifice verb
- to give up or offer something
- sacrificial adjective
- relating to sacrifice
- lamb noun
- a young sheep
Commonly confused: sacrificial lamb or scapegoat?
sacrificial lamb vs scapegoat
A scapegoat is always blamed after the fact, whereas a sacrificial lamb can be picked in advance to take a loss.
Practice
The party picked a little-known candidate to run in the opponent's stronghold, treating her as a ___.
Choose one answer.
A sacrificial lamb is put up knowing they will probably lose. A dark horse is an unexpected winner, which is the opposite idea.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sacrificial lamb”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.