whipping boy

Definition

A boy who was whipped in the stead of a misbehaving prince in early modern Europe.

Etymology

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

Example Sentences

• "As the whipping boy, he must take the whippings for the royal heir, Prince Brat."
• "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."
• "In others he denounces it as rank Judaism, the Jew having at that time become for him the whipping boy for all modern humanity."