Scapegoat meaning : In the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed. Someone punished for the error or errors of someone else. To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of. To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.