Someone punished for the errors of others; SYN. whipping boy.
In the Hebrew Bible (Leviticus 16), a goat loaded with the sins of the people and then sent out into the wilderness as a way of removing those sins. The goat was sent to Azazel, who is variously understood to be a demon of the desert and of disorder. In contemporary language, a scapegoat is someone, usually relatively minor, who is caught up in a scandal and then dismissed or prosecuted while those higher up who were also involved are left untouched.
im AT (3. Mose 16, 21) ein Bock, dem am Versöhnungstag der jüd. Hohepriester durch Auflegen der Hände symbol. die Sünden des ganzen Volks übertrug. Danach wurde der Bock in die Wüste geschickt.
To make a scapegoat of