How to Use whipping boy in a Sentence

whipping boy

noun

• Like any zombie-to-be, Tom seeks out the next human to turn, and that’s his favorite confidante/whipping boy Greg.
  — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 20 Dec. 2021
• Lee, who has thrown a nation-high nine interceptions, has been the fans' whipping boy during a poor start to Riley's third year in Lincoln.
  — USA TODAY, 23 Sep. 2017
• Adding Toronto fan whipping boy Jake Gardiner would be a nice play for a team that has just five defensemen under contact.
  — Matt Porter, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2019
• Hollywood has long used the US business mogul as the whipping boy to illustrate society’s ills.
  — Adario Strange, Quartz, 4 Jan. 2022
• Since defeating league whipping boys Southampton 3-1 in September, the Cherries are without a win in five games.
  — SI.com, 2 Nov. 2019
• Eight plus one = nine, and therefore Brighton will inherently become Chelsea's whipping boys.
  — SI.com, 28 Sep. 2019
• Paymer is an asset, playing with effortless conviction the eternal whipping boy who has a core of real strength.
  — Washington Post, 28 Apr. 2022
• For as much as is possible on a team that’s begun the year with 16 wins in its first 22 games, Avila had turned into something of a local whipping boy, catching flak from fans and radio hosts for his brutal start.
  — Nick Piecoro, azcentral, 24 Apr. 2018
• The polar vortex – everyone's favorite wintertime whipping boy – is a large area of cold air high up in the atmosphere that normally spins over the North Pole (as its name suggests).
  — Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 19 Feb. 2020
• Cousins has gone from whipping boy to top-level performer, throwing 18 touchdown passes and only one interception in the last seven games while leading his team to six wins in that stretch.
  — Mike Jones, USA TODAY, 19 Nov. 2019
• Through the first five days of the postseason, starting pitcher served primarily as whipping boys, with even the aces and frontliners routinely getting lashed.
  — Jay Jaffe, SI.com, 12 Oct. 2017
• Abbott has made the end of Title 42 a principal whipping boy in his reelection campaign, and has promised to continue his Operation Lone Star to stop the flow of migrants across the border.
  — Dallas News, 13 Apr. 2022
• O'Neill has worked wonders to turn the Northern Irish from whipping boys into a genuinely competitive outfit.
  — SI.com, 9 Sep. 2019
• Or why Mac has everyone so jazzed up about investigating the old perennial Gang whipping boy Rickety Cricket found in the alley.
  — Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 3 Sep. 2022
• Costa Rica, barring an unlikely miracle, should be the group whipping boys, meaning the game between Serbia and Switzerland could be vital.
  — SI.com, 3 June 2018
• The polar vortex – everyone's favorite wintertime whipping boy – is actually a gigantic, circular area of cold air high up in the atmosphere that typically spins over the North Pole (as its name suggests).
  — Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 27 Jan. 2022
• Even after becoming the president’s whipping boy, Sessions persevered—advancing his own personal vendetta against marijuana and all the hippies and darkies that use it.
  — Monique Judge, The Root, 17 Apr. 2018
• The political optics haven't changed much—with one significant exception: China has replaced Japan as the dominant regional player and whipping boy for American (and the Trump administration’s) concerns about trade imbalances.
  — Krishnadev Calamur, The Atlantic, 3 Nov. 2017

Last Updated: 17 Sep 2024