- blame (for something) responsibility for doing something badly or wrongly; saying that somebody is responsible for something
- Why do I always get the blame for everything that goes wrong?
- to lay/put the blame for something on somebody
- The government will have to take the blame for the riots.
- The real estate industry deserves a fair share of the blame for this failure.
- Don't even think about playing the blame game (= blaming somebody else for a problem instead of trying to find a solution).
Extra Examples- He was absolved of all blame.
- She put the blame on me.
- They pinned the blame for the crisis on the President.
- They placed the blame squarely on the doctor.
- The government tried to lay the blame at the door of the unions.
- My brother broke the window, but I got the blame.
- The blame lies with the police, who failed to act quickly enough.
- The company refused to accept any blame for the damage.
- The government must share the blame for this confusion.
- They tried to shift the blame onto someone else.
- I’m not interested in apportioning blame for the accident (= deciding how much each person involved was responsible for it).
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + blame- get
- accept
- bear
- …
- fall on somebody
- lie with somebody
- rest with somebody
- …
- blame for
- lay the blame at somebody’s door
- part of the blame
- a share of the blame
- …
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French blamer, blasmer (verb), from a popular Latin variant of ecclesiastical Latin blasphemare ‘reproach, revile, blaspheme’, from Greek blasphēmein, from blasphēmos ‘evil-speaking’.Want to learn more?
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Idioms
See blame in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee blame in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishthe finger of blame/suspicion
- if the finger of blame/suspicion points or is pointed at somebody, they are suspected of having committed a crime, being responsible for something, etc.
- The inquiry pointed the finger of blame at the driver of the crashed coach.
- The finger of suspicion was pointed at the chicken served for lunch.
Check pronunciation:
blame