whipping boy

名词 n.
中文释义

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. A boy who was whipped in the stead of a misbehaving prince in early modern Europe. historical
    — As the whipping boy, he must take the whippings for the royal heir, Prince Brat.
  2. Someone punished for the errors of others.
    — Once upon a time there was a little Power, the half-bankrupt wreck of a once great empire, that lost its temper with England, the whipping-boy of all the world, and behaved, as every one knows, most scandalously.

词形变化

whipping boys plural whipping-boy alternative

词源

First recorded in 1647. It is debated if this type of proxy punishment actually existed, or how widespread it was.
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