sacrificial lamb
6
7.7
- noun
- /ˌsækrɪˈfɪʃəl læm/
- Informal
:
cordero sacrificial
- Grausse's eyes, protuberant and teary, traveled around to touch everyone in the group, and he nodded deeply, as if feeling the solemnity of his role as sixth, as a sacrificial lamb.
- became the sacrificial lamb
- almost a sacrificial lamb
- first sacrificial lamb
So the healthy people become the sacrificial lambs.
- So the healthy people become the sacrificial lambs.
- Be the sacrificial, sacrificial lamb for all of the world, right?
Examples
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Will the powers in charge hoist up a sacrificial lamb in shame?
Blog text (34) -
She felt like a sacrificial lamb when her team blamed her for their poor performance.
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Just think of yourself as a sacrificial lamb.
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Are you that afraid to become a sacrificial lamb?
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Do you worry and stress that you are the next sacrificial lamb for the budget in your district?
Academic text (2012) -
My parents had offered me to him like a sacrificial lamb on the altar of family tradition.
Fiction book (1997) -
And Yamashita became the sacrificial lamb that served them both.
Fiction book (2000) -
It is revealed that they need Dale to be the sacrificial lamb and take the blame for the toxic assets that would drag down the net value of the firm.
Academic text (2016) -
Of course, Akin's refusal to leave doesn't dismiss the possibility that he will be the sacrificial lamb to soften the GOP's side in the War on Women.
Blog text (25) -
The company used the junior employee as a sacrificial lamb to appease the angry shareholders.
How Victimized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from the parts: 'sacrificial' means offered or given up for others and 'lamb' evokes an innocent or gentle figure, so together they denote a person who is sacrificed or made to suffer for others. This metaphoric pairing is culturally common and follows a transparent compositional pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely infer the MWE's sense.
Etymology
Sacrificial lamb comes from old religious practices where a lamb was offered and killed to take away the people's sins. Because the animal suffered in place of others, the phrase now means a person who is made to suffer or 'take the blame' for other people.