blame

blame¹ W3S2 [bleım] v [T]

[Date: 1100-1200; : Old French; Origin: blamer, from Late Latin blasphemare; BLASPHEME]

1.) to say or think that someone or something is responsible for something bad

▪ Don't blame me - it's not my fault.

▪ I blame his mother. She does everything for him.

blame sb/sth for sth

▪ Marie still blames herself for Patrick's death.

▪ The report blames poor safety standards for the accident.

▪ The decision to increase interest rates was widely blamed (=blamed by many people) for the crisis.

blame sth on sb/sth

▪ One of the computers is broken and she's blaming it on me.

▪ The crash was blamed on pilot error.

2.) sb/sth is to blame (for sth)

used to say that someone or something is responsible for something bad

▪ Officials believe that more than one person may be to blame for the fire.

partly/largely/entirely etc to blame

▪ Television is partly to blame.

3.) I don't blame you/you can hardly blame him etc

spoken used to say that you think it was right or reasonable for someone to do what they did

▪ 'She's left her husband.' 'I don't blame her, after the way he treated her.'

▪ You can hardly blame him for not waiting. You were in there for an hour.

4.) don't blame me

spoken used when you are advising someone not to do something but you think that they will do it in spite of your advice

▪ Buy it then, but don't blame me when it breaks down.

5.) sb only has himself/herself to blame

spoken used to say that someone's problems are their own fault

▪ If he fails his exams, he'll only have himself to blame.

blame ²

blame² n [U]

responsibility for a mistake or for something bad

blame for

▪ Do you accept any blame for what happened?

▪ You can't expect Terry to take all the blame .

▪ I always get the blame for his mistakes!

▪ She stole the money but she's trying to put the blame on me.

▪ There was no safety barrier, but the court ruled that the child's parents must share the blame for the accident.

▪ We are not here to apportion blame .

▪ It's no use trying to shift the blame onto other people.

▪ In my opinion, the blame lies with the police.

see usage note ↑fault¹

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COLLOCATES for sense 1

take/accept the blame (=say that something is your fault)

get the blame (=be blamed)

put/lay/pin/place the blame (for something) on somebody (=blame someone, especially for something that is not their fault)

share the blame

apportion/assign blame formal (=blame someone)

shift the blame (onto somebody) (=blame someone else for something you did)

the blame lies with somebody (=used to say that someone did something)

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