sacrificial victim
Altar's intended recipient
A sacrificial victim is a person or animal killed as an offering to a deity or supernatural force.
The term extends to anyone destroyed or harmed for a larger cause or to benefit others: The junior employees became sacrificial victims when layoffs came.
A scapegoat is a kind of sacrificial victim—blamed and punished so others escape consequences.
- scapegoatUnfairly blamed person
- fall guyOne blamed for others
- whipping boyDesignated recipient of punishment
- martyrVictim for beliefs
- cannon fodderTroops treated as disposable
thrown under the bus · offering · selflessness · oblation · holocaust · greater good · immolation · altruism · human rights · renunciation · moral dilemma · votive · paschal lamb · lamb · forfeiture · surrender · consecration · vicarious
sacrificial victimpriest
One who performs sacraments
sacrificer · officiant · executioner · high priest · shaman
sacrificial victimperpetrator
One who commits wrongdoing
victimizer · oppressor · aggressor · persecutor · tormentor
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