blame
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: blām
ipa: /bleɪm/
rhymes: -eɪm
Forms: form: blames
form: blaming
form: blamed
form: blamed
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: blame
form: blame
form: blamed
form: blame
form: blamest
form: blamed
form: blamedst
form: blames
form: blameth
form: blamed
form: blame
form: blamed
form: blame
form: blamed
form: blame
form: -
form: blaming
form: blamed
Etymology: 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).
Senses: examples: text: The student driver was blamed for the accident.
text: After what happened at the wedding, I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to them again.
text: 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.
ref: 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 8:
text: 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.
ref: 1919, Saki, ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace:
glosses: 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).
raw_tags: followed by "for"
examples: text: We blamed the accident on the student driver.
text: 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 there
ref: 1985 December 23, Prince, “Manic Monday”, in Different Light, performed by The Bangles:
glosses: To assert the cause of some bad event.
raw_tags: with "on"
examples: text: though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame, yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming.
ref: 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 106:
glosses: To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
examples: text: For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To bring into disrepute.
Synonyms: sense: consider that someone is the cause of something negative
word: hold to account
sense: consider that someone is the cause of something negative
word: hold someone responsible
sense: consider that someone is the cause of something negative
word: hold someone accountable
sense: censure, criticize
word: reproach
sense: censure, criticize
word: shend
sense: censure, criticize
word: take to task
sense: censure, criticize
word: upbraid
sense: censure, criticize
word: fault
sense: censure, criticize
word: find fault
word: blame
word: put the blame on
word: twit
Derived terms: blamable
blameable
blame Canada
blamer
dad-blamed
misblame
overblame
to blame
victim-blame
Related terms: word: scapegoat
word: praise
word: criticize