How to Use sacrificial lamb in a Sentence

sacrificial lamb

noun
  • Venice shouldn’t be used as a sacrificial lamb to make a point.
    — Catherine Bennett, WIRED, 15 Aug. 2023
  • There’s a lot of ‘one driver has to play the sacrificial lamb’ in the race.
    — Patrick Iversen, The Athletic, 26 Aug. 2024
  • Most politicos at the time saw Portune as the sacrificial lamb in that race.
    — Sharon Coolidge, Cincinnati.com, 12 Sep. 2019
  • Sure enough, Geillis is in there with Ian, who’s all trussed up like a sacrificial lamb.
    — Elizabeth Angell, Town & Country, 11 Dec. 2017
  • After all, wolves don’t just wait around for a sacrificial lamb to show up in the forest and their teeth are rarely bared in public.
    — David Opie, IndieWire, 15 Feb. 2026
  • Jews escaped the tenth plague—the killing of firstborn sons in each household—by marking their door posts with the blood of a sacrificial lamb.
    — James Deutsch, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Apr. 2020
  • Jughead ends the season by giving himself up as a sacrificial lamb to the Ghoulies.
    — Carolyn Twersky, Seventeen, 8 Oct. 2018
  • Israel is not, is not a sacrificial lamb for the Iranians or for their proxies.
    — Eric Cortellessa/jerusalem, TIME, 8 Aug. 2024
  • Neither of you wants to leave the soft folds of your bed sheets and perfectly fluffy pillows, but someone has to be the sacrificial lamb.
    — Talia Abbas, Glamour, 31 Mar. 2020
  • At least Nick Saban is nice enough not to run up the score on the sacrificial lambs of college football.
    — Joseph Goodman, AL.com, 17 Mar. 2018
  • Looks like Cory and Kyle's team is going to continue to be the sacrificial lamb.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 14 Oct. 2021
  • This sacrificial lamb to The Watchdog is not going to enjoy the next few minutes of his life.
    — Dave Lieber, Dallas News, 30 May 2023
  • All this may further elevate her into a Trumpian figure, a rich sacrificial lamb.
    — Melissa Gira Grant, The New Republic, 3 Feb. 2021
  • Orsted will have wanted to avoid becoming the sacrificial lamb in the right’s latest rampage against the offshore wind sector.
    — Byryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 17 Nov. 2023
  • But if this savior is not hired — and on the road recruiting right away — then this recruiting class will be the sacrificial lamb of the decision.
    — Chris Bumbaca, ajc, 25 Nov. 2017
  • Ribbs is concerned that Wallace could be a sacrificial lamb, unless the leaders of sport continue to stand with him.
    — Ann Killion, SFChronicle.com, 25 June 2020
  • So analysts now wonder if perhaps Wagers was a sacrificial lamb.
    — Washington Post, 17 Mar. 2019
  • Marner going from sacrificial lamb to playoff MVP would be worth the price of admission alone.
    — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 30 May 2026
  • And yet, despite their similar positional profiles, there was never any question who would be the sacrificial lamb.
    — Evan Webeck, The Mercury News, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Indeed, Paris may be the unfortunate sacrificial lamb in an apparent epidemic that has been a long time coming across the rest of the globe.
    — Ryan Hogg, Fortune, 17 Oct. 2023
  • Because this is about football, the sport that has destroyed rivalries, razed conferences and served up its departmental peers like sacrificial lambs.
    — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 8 June 2026
  • At the least, it forces said $10-million coach to line up sacrificial lambs on his own staff before harder, and more expensive, decisions get forced upon him.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 29 Nov. 2025
  • Harvey Weinstein and the rest of these high profile Hollywood elites were merely sacrificial lambs.
    — Maegan Vazquez, Washington Post, 18 June 2024
  • Gerri is still in place as a figurehead and potential sacrificial lamb, ready to absorb any nuclear radiation that this war may bring the company’s way.
    — Kevin Sullivan, Robb Report, 24 Oct. 2021
  • Wonder Woman 1984 became a Covid victim and a sacrificial lamb to the streaming wars.
    — Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 18 Oct. 2021
  • Saucedo cautioned that a cartel leader may have authorized the attack then regretted it and decided to offer sacrificial lambs to police.
    — James Pollard, Fortune, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Utah Democrats opted to sit the Senate race out instead of sending up the traditional sacrificial lamb candidate.
    — Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 6 July 2022
  • But the 46-year-old father was not a willing martyr or sacrificial lamb for the Democratic Party's idea of justice reform.
    — Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, 25 Apr. 2021
  • Rodrygo has become the sacrificial lamb of a tactical rearrangement, and seems to have lost importance with his manager while being more increasingly confined to the bench.
    — Tom Sanderson, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2024
  • By the decisive Game 6, Donte DiVincenzo was the sacrificial lamb, the best option but hardly an ideal one.
    — Fred Katz, New York Times, 15 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sacrificial lamb.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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