blame
verbEtymology From Middle English blamen, borrowed from Old French blasmer, from Late Latin blasphēmāre (“to reproach, to revile”), from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō). Compare blaspheme, a doublet. Overtook common use from the native wite (“to blame, accuse, reproach, suspect”) (from Middle English wīten, from Old English wītan).
1
Usually, Followed by "for" To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame; to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative).
- The student driver was blamed for the accident.
- After what happened at the wedding, I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to them again.
2 more examples
- These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighbouring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces.1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 8:
- That was the year that Sir Richard was writing his volume on Domestic Life in Tartary. The critics all blamed it for a lack of concentration.1919, Saki, ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace:
2
With "on" To assert the cause of some bad event.
- We blamed the accident on the student driver.
- Have to catch an early train, got to be to work by nine And if I had an airplane, I still couldn't make it on time 'Cause it takes me so long just to figure out what I'm gonna wear Blame it on the train, but the boss is already there1985 December 23, Prince, “Manic Monday”, in Different Light, performed by The Bangles:
3
To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
- though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame, yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming.2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 106:
4
Obsolete To bring into disrepute.
- For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Synonyms
- accuse, atwite, blame, bumble, challenge, cop out, decry, defame, denounce, fault, finger, inculpate, lay at someone's door, lay on, lay something at the feet of, patronize, point the bone, put it to, put the blame on, shend, twit, wite
- Antonyms
- absolve, acquit, disculpate, forgive
- Derived terms
- blamable, blameable, blame Canada, blamer, dad-blamed, misblame, overblame, to blame, victim-blame
- Related terms
- hold to account, scapegoat, praise, criticize
- Hypernyms
- ascribe