Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To consider responsible for a misdeed, failure, or undesirable outcome.
  • transitive verb To find fault with; criticize.
  • transitive verb To place responsibility for (something).
  • noun The state of being responsible for a fault or error; culpability.
  • noun Censure; condemnation.
  • idiom (to blame) Deserving censure or disapproval; at fault.
  • idiom (to blame) Being the cause or source of something.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To express disapprobation of; find fault with; censure: opposed to praise or commend.
  • Formerly it might be followed by of.
  • To charge; impute as a fault; lay the responsibility of: as, he blames the failure on you.
  • To bring reproach upon; blemish; injure.
  • [In such phrases as he is to blame, to blame, by an old and common construction, has the passive meaning ‘to be blamed, blamable.’ Compare a house to let, hire, build; grain ready to cut, etc.
  • In writers of the Elizabethan period it was often written too blame, blame apparently being mistaken for an adjective.] Synonyms To reprove, reproach, chide, upbraid, reprehend. See decry.
  • noun An expression of disapproval of something deemed to be wrong; imputation of a fault; censure; reprehension.
  • noun That which is deserving of censure or disapprobation; fault; crime; sin.
  • noun Culpability; responsibility for something that is wrong: as, the blame is yours.
  • noun Hurt; injury.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An expression of disapprobation fir something deemed to be wrong; imputation of fault; censure.
  • noun That which is deserving of censure or disapprobation; culpability; fault; crime; sin.
  • noun obsolete Hurt; injury.
  • transitive verb To censure; to express disapprobation of; to find fault with; to reproach.
  • transitive verb obsolete To bring reproach upon; to blemish.
  • transitive verb to be blamed, or deserving blame; in fault; as, the conductor was to blame for the accident.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Censure.
  • noun Culpability for something negative or undesirable.
  • noun Responsibility for something meriting censure.
  • verb To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
  • verb obsolete To bring into disrepute.
  • verb transitive, usually followed by "for" To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame, to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb harass with constant criticism
  • verb put or pin the blame on
  • verb attribute responsibility to
  • noun a reproach for some lapse or misdeed
  • noun an accusation that you are responsible for some lapse or misdeed
  • adjective expletives used informally as intensifiers

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English blamen, from Old French blasmer, blamer, from Vulgar Latin *blastēmāre, alteration of Late Latin blasphēmāre, to reproach; see blaspheme.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Old French blasme

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Old French blasmer, from Late Latin blasphēmō ("to reproach, to revile"). Compare blaspheme

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Examples

Comments

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  • You must be a blame' fool. HF 16

    December 5, 2006

  • Business Logic Anomaly Menders and Extractors

    idiots'>acronym courtesy of elgiad007 on idiots

    November 13, 2008

  • "And directors are the ones who get blamed for the ensuing public anger. When questioned at a Congressional hearing in the US over his pay deal worth $US480 million over seven years, former Lehman Brothers boss Richard Fuld blamed the remuneration committee of the board for giving it to him - even though he had appointed them. That's gratitude for you."

    - Michael West, Down the golden chute, theage.com.au, 16 Feb 2009.

    February 16, 2009