to blame


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blame (someone or something) for (something)

To foist or assign responsibility or guilt for something on someone or something. My partner had been cooking the books for years, but because I was the CEO, I was blamed for our company's collapse. Don't blame me for your unhappiness—I told you not to take that job! The athlete blamed his faulty equipment for his poor performance during the game.
See also: blame, for

to blame

Responsible for or the cause of (something); deserving of blame or reprisal (for something). I heard that slippery roads were to blame for the accident here this morning. We know you are to blame for the disappearing office supplies, Jake.
See also: blame, to
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

to blame

1. Deserving censure or disapproval; at fault: an investigation to determine who was to blame for the leak.
2. Being the cause or source of something: A freak storm was to blame for the power outage.
See also: blame, to
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
'Is it not laughable that 'Baba Go Slow' has got people to blame for the snail speed of his government?
Frank To Buhari: Apologise To Nigerians, Stop Blaming Saraki, Dogara For Executive Failure
Like any norm-governed practice, one can cease to blame appropriately or inappropriately, successfully or unsuccessfully.
OPPRESSION, FORGIVENESS, AND CEASING TO BLAME
At the same time, Republicans are far more likely to blame Bush than Democrats are to blame Obama (44% vs.
Bush Still Leads Obama in Blame for U.S. Economic Troubles
If anyone could've been tempted to blame others, it would've been one of the region's most celebrated CEOs who'd made a few very costly blunders - to the tune of billions of dollars.
Business leaders ought to man up to their failures
I've just learned that it is the action that matters, not the need to blame.
Ciao, Blame
Think how much more you could accomplish in your life if, instead of going over and over why someone or something else is to blame, you used your mind to start thinking of the solution to the problem.
Stop playing the blame game
Yet it is possible to blame someone whom one has not met personally.
T.M. Scanlon: Moral Dimensions: Permissibility, Meaning, Blame
When things go very badly, it is all too common for God to be blamed--"It's all in God's plan," "God is testing me," "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away." In Poor Old God, He Always Gets the Blame, author Arlene Claire Cartwright dares to take the role of His defense attorney, and questions whether He really is to blame for everything that goes wrong.
Poor Old God, He Always Gets the Blame
OUR PERMISSIVE SOCIETY IS TO BLAME FOR THESE ATTACKS...
What we believe
Fliss tended to blame the "Indian industry" comprised of lawyers, bureaucrats, consultants, researchers, and others who make a living off aboriginal affairs, as having fuelled the enormous cost of the settlement which includes $80 million for legal fees.
Residential school settlement
Adam's immediate reaction to God's challange about his sir was to blame Eve.
THOUGHT for the DAY
London -- Social worker Lisa Arthurworrey was cleared of mis conduct related to the murder of a child and her superiors in the social services department of the social services in the Borough of Haringey who held her to blame are now facing public scorn and criticism.
UK social worker cleared of charges in child's death, superiors face public scorn
We, the general public, are to blame for wanting round-the-clock opening
Letter: Cut drink time
CORRECTION: There is a growing, unsettling predisposition among environmental extremists with polemical axes to grind to blame mankind in general and industrial development in particular for natural disasters.
Waves of lies
We look for someone, something, to blame, to take responsibility for the upset of our lives, our hopes, our dreams.
Fourth Sunday in Lent: March 6, 2005
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