1. Home
2. Idioms
3. take the rap

take the rap

---

---

take the rap

(for someone) Inf. to take the blame [for doing something] for someone else. I don't want to take the rap for you. John robbed the bank, but Tom took the rap for him.

See also: rap, take

take the rap (for something)

Inf. to take the blame for (doing) something. I won't take the rap for the crime. I wasn't even in town. Who'll take the rap for it? Who did it?

See also: rap, take

take the rap (for something)

to be blamed or punished unfairly for something you have not done Reublinger has often taken the rap for bad decisions made by his boss.

See also: rap, take

take the rap

to be blamed or punished for something bad that has happened, especially when it is not your fault (often + for ) I'm not going to take the rap for someone else's mistakes.

See beat the rap

See also: rap, take

take the rap

Be punished or blamed for something, as in I don't want to take the rap for Mary, who forgot to mail the check in time, or Steve is such a nice guy that he's always taking the rap for his colleagues. This slangy idiom originally used rap in the sense of "a criminal charge," a usage still current. By the mid-1900s it was also used more broadly.

See also: rap, take

take the rap

verb

See take the rap for something

See also: rap, take

take the rap

Slang

To accept punishment or take the blame for an offense or error.

See also: rap, take