Whipping-boy meaning
A scapegoat.
noun
A boy formerly raised with a prince or other young nobleman and whipped for the latter's misdeeds.
noun
A boy brought up together with a young prince and required to take the punishment for the latter's misdeeds.
noun
Origin of whipping-boy
- Middle English wippen "flap violently", from Proto-Germanic wipp-, from Proto-Indo-European wib- "move quickly". Whipping boy first recorded 1647.
From Wiktionary