Definition of blame
blamed
;blaming
transitive verb
1 : to find fault with : censure the right to praise or blame a literary work
2a : to hold responsible they blame me for everythingb : to place responsibility for blames it on me
blamer
nounto blame
: at fault : responsible says he's not to blame for the accident
Indulge Your Inner Word Nerd
Is it blame on or blame for?
Use of blame in sense 2b with on has occasionally been disparaged as wrong. Such disparagement is without basis; blame on occurs as frequently in carefully edited prose as blame for. Both are standard.
Examples of blame in a Sentence
Don't blame me. You are responsible for your own problems.
My father always blames everything on me.
I blame the poor harvest on the weather.
Recent Examples of blame from the Web
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Establishment Republicans blamed President Donald Trump.
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Rep. Barbara Lee of California blamed Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
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Five Star’s pledge to hold an advisory referendum on euro membership taps into voters blaming Brussels at least in part for the sluggish economy.
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Partly to blame is a shift from the traditional community pub of locals to strangers’ cocktail bars and pop-ups — a new kind of plague on the city.
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Turkey’s government blames the military rebellion on the Gulen Movement, a secretive Islamic sect, claiming that its crackdown is aimed at rooting out the movement’s members and protecting democracy.
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The alternative is to be the finger-pointer, the one who finds someone or something else to blame for her misfortune, thereby asserting by implication her own purity or righteousness.
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Buffalo-area health officials blamed 300 deaths on opioid overdoses in 2016, up from 127 two years earlier.
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Conservative politicians were quick to blame South Australia’s shift away from fossil fuels.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'blame.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of blame
Middle English, from Anglo-French blamer, blasmer, from Late Latin blasphemare to blaspheme, from Greek blasphēmein
blame
Definition of blame
1 : an expression of disapproval or reproach : censure … saying nothing … either in the way of blame or praise. — R. L. Stevenson
2a : a state of being blameworthy : culpability … acknowledge the world as a world of common blame, — Muriel Rukeyserb archaic : fault, sin
3 : responsibility for something believed to deserve censure they must share the blame
blamelessly
adverbblamelessness
nounExamples of blame in a Sentence
It's not entirely his fault, but he's not completely free of blame, either.
willingly accepted the blame for not seeing that the kitchen was properly cleaned
Recent Examples of blame from the Web
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A number of observers have also put the blame on airline managers for outsourcing IT operations to less-expensive locations to slash costs.
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In this sense, Microsoft is right–but the blame shouldn’t end there.
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As the worm, known as WannaCry, has been contained, more free time has opened up in which to argue and assign blame beyond the anonymous hackers who used leaked NSA code to assemble the virus, and whatever party decided to turn it into ransomware.
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To the extent that Turf Paradise has suffered a downturn, Jerry and General Manager Vince Francia said blame goes to an industry-wide slump that has closed many tracks.
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The city’s hyper-segregation deserves much of the blame, said Brian Sonderman, executive director of Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity.
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They are forced to victim-blame each other, to slut-shame each other, to publicly denounce each other.
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While a lot of lawmakers are launching probes and talking about holding airlines accountable in the moment, some of that blame falls to the regulations that already exist.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'blame.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of blame
see 1blame
BLAME Defined for English Language Learners
blame
playDefinition of blame for English Language Learners
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: to say or think that a person or thing is responsible for something bad that has happened
blame
Definition of blame for English Language Learners
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: responsibility for something that fails or is wrong
BLAME Defined for Kids
Definition of blame for Students
blamed
;blaming
1 : to find fault with Who could blame her for wanting to leave?
2 : to hold responsible He blamed me for everything.
3 : to place responsibility for Don't blame the mistake on us.
Learn More about blame
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for blame Spanish Central: Translation of blame Nglish: Translation of blame for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of blame for Arabic speakers
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