Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of whipping boyThere will always be whipping boys at the World Cup, a team who arrive underprepared or in chaos of some description.—
Nick Miller,
New York Times,
13 Nov. 2025 Gordie is invisible to his mother and a whipping boy to his father.—
Sezin Devi Koehler September 1,
EW.com,
1 Sep. 2025 Yet Hojlund only has to look at Scott McTominay and how Conte revitalised his career in Naples after years of being a United whipping boy by some sections of the fan base.—
Emmet Gates,
Forbes.com,
30 Aug. 2025 Once more, Turkey seems to have become a whipping boy for all manner of interests, some of which have little to do with the realities of Turkey itself.—
Hugh Pope,
Foreign Affairs,
21 Oct. 2010 See All Example Sentences for whipping boy
There’s no excuse not to organize your pills for travel when this organizer is on sale for just $8.
—
Julia Morlino,
Travel + Leisure,
30 June 2026
The Fourth of July is, for many of us, a welcome excuse for barbecues, beach outings and fireworks — a holiday defined by gathering, but also some pretty ambitious eating and drinking too.
Just like the Mets, the case could be made that Boston’s president of baseball operations, Craig Breslow, deserved the blame, but the skipper became the scapegoat instead.
—
Gary Phillips,
New York Daily News,
26 June 2026
In a legal filing, Crowley said Mayor Karen Bass, who was out of the country when the fires began, made the longtime firefighter a scapegoat for the catastrophe.