pin the blame on

idiomatic phrase

: to assign (someone) the blame for something
When he got caught, he tried to pin the blame on someone else.
Eventually, researchers and governments did definitively pin the blame for that incident on the Russian government …Patrick Howell O'Neill

Examples of pin the blame on in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Her defense has argued that fellow law enforcement officers in that home killed O’Keefe, dumped his body on the lawn and conspired to pin the blame on Read in a vast cover-up. Eric Levenson, CNN Money, 5 May 2025 Taking a defensive stance supported by company president Frank Borman, a former astronaut who commanded the first NASA mission to orbit the moon, the lawyers for Eastern and its insurance carriers tried to pin the blame on both the FAA and the four air-traffic controllers. Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 27 Apr. 2025 But Zelensky declined to pin the blame on the Trump administration. Simon Shuster, TIME, 24 Mar. 2025 At Thompson’s trial, Gair sought to pin the blame on the bank and its former president, John Gembara, saying Thompson had nothing to do with generating the erroneous tax forms that wound up on his returns. Sam Charles, Chicago Tribune, 21 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for pin the blame on

Word History

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of pin the blame on was in 1892

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Cite this Entry

“Pin the blame on.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pin%20the%20blame%20on. Accessed 27 May. 2025.

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