sacrificial lamb

noun

: someone or something that is deliberately sacrificed to promote a cause or for the benefit of others

… has become the sacrificial lamb to deflect criticism about exaggerated charges used to make the case for war on Iraq.

—John Diamond

Yet some women complain that they are recruited as sacrificial lambs to fill out tickets against incumbents regarded as unbeatable.

—Patricia A. Avery

Examples of sacrificial lamb in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Chris Grier was the sacrificial lamb for the Miami Dolphins’ failures as a franchise this past decade, but coach Mike McDaniel’s hands are far from clean. —Omar Kelly november 7, Miami Herald, 7 Nov. 2025

There have been a disproportionate number of academy products playing the part of sacrificial lambs. —Jordan Campbell, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2025

This narrative dissonance is amplified by the film’s continuation of Marvel’s female problems, using its two main female characters as sacrificial lambs. —Maureen Lee Lenker Published, EW.com, 22 July 2025

As little more than a sacrificial lamb or a deer in headlights unable to change her fate, Gladys seemed so small in that big church. —Ronda Racha Penrice, HollywoodReporter, 14 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1834, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for sacrificial lamb

• interferogram
• parallelogram
• abraham
• anagram
• cablegram
• cofferdam
• dendrogram
• diagram
• diaphragm
• epigram
• hexagram
• histogram