- Home
- Idioms
- whipping
whipping
pencil whip
1. To complete a form or record, especially a checklist, without doing the work required or by providing falsified or incomplete information. It has come to light that the safety supervisor aboard the oil rig had been pencil whipping his observational reports for several weeks leading up to the disaster.
2. To approve such a form without actually verifying that the contents are accurate or properly completed. We're supposed to fill out a detailed checklist after each shift, but I know my boss just pencil whips them.
whipping boy
A person or thing that is blamed for problems, often those caused by someone or something else. Bobby got tired of being the whipping boy for the mischief caused by his older brothers. Video games have become the whipping boy for the violent behavior displayed by today's youth.
whipping boy
Fig. someone who is punished for someone else's misdeeds. The president has turned out to be the whipping boy for his party.
a whipping boy
someone or something that is blamed or punished for problems that are caused by someone or something else Television has been the favourite whipping boy of every social reformer in modern America.
whipping boy
A scapegoat, as in This department's always been the whipping boy when things don't go well. This expression alludes to the former practice of keeping a boy to be whipped in place of a prince who was to be punished. [Early 1900s]