blame

(blām)

tr.v. blamed, blam·ing, blames

1. To consider responsible for a misdeed, failure, or undesirable outcome: blamed the coach for the loss; blamed alcohol for his bad behavior.

2. To find fault with; criticize: I can't blame you for wanting your fair share.

3. To place responsibility for (something): blamed the crisis on poor planning.

1. The state of being responsible for a fault or error; culpability.

2. Censure; condemnation: "Hoover hazarded more in the way of federal response to economic crisis than any president before him, but his efforts were not enough to divert the blame and wrath of the American people" (Michael B. Stoff).

Idiom:

to blame

1. Deserving censure or disapproval; at fault: an investigation to determine who was to blame for the leak.

2. Being the cause or source of something: A freak storm was to blame for the power outage.

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

blam′a·ble, blame′a·ble adj.

blam′a·bly, blame′a·bly adv.

blam′er n.

Synonyms: blame, fault, guilt
These nouns denote responsibility for an offense or error. Blame stresses the assignment of accountability and often connotes censure or criticism: The police laid the blame for the accident on the driver.
Fault suggests a failure or deficiency on the part of the responsible party: It's my own fault that I wasn't prepared for the exam.
Guilt applies to willful wrongdoing and stresses moral or legal transgression: The prosecution had evidence of the defendant's guilt.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

blameable - deserving blame or censure as being wrong or evil or injurious; "blameworthy if not criminal behavior"; "censurable misconduct"; "culpable negligence"

blamable, blameful, blameworthy, censurable, culpable

guilty - responsible for or chargeable with a reprehensible act; "guilty of murder"; "the guilty person"; "secret guilty deeds"

blamable

also blameable
adjective

Deserving blame:

blameful, blameworthy, censurable, culpable, guilty, reprehensible.

Idiom: at fault.

Translations

blameable

, blamable (US)

adj → tadelnswert, tadelnswürdig

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

If it is blameable in Skimpole to take the note, it is blameable in Bucket to offer the note--much more blameable in Bucket, because he is the knowing man.

View in context

who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust!

View in context

As for Jones, he was well satisfied with the truth of what the other had asserted, and believed that Partridge had no other inducements but love to him, and zeal for the cause; a blameable want of caution and diffidence in the veracity of others, in which he was highly worthy of censure.

View in context

You are resolved to think him blameable, because he took leave of us with less affection than his usual behaviour has shewn.

View in context

And here I can admit, that my manners to Miss W., in being unpleasant to Miss F., were highly blameable. She disapproved them, which ought to have been enough.My plea of concealing the truth she did not think sufficient.She was displeased; I thought unreasonably so: I thought her, on a thousand occasions, unnecessarily scrupulous and cautious: I thought her even cold.

View in context

you asked the question as if there was nothing blameable in it--as if you thought it quite natural."

View in context

therefore be the remote and blameable cause of all the disturbances and

Dr. Joseph Warren: Architect of the Revolution

He said BoG should be ready to accept part of the blame, because the affected banks are not wholly blameable.

Otumfuo blames BoG for collapse of banks

They discover what is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, blameable and guilty or worthy of appreciation and reward in our lives.

The philosophy of disease; or, bearing troubles with spiritual nobility and moral dignity

He declares that after "examining my past conduct" he does not find it "blameable," since the Creature is, he asserts, an eloquent liar whose pleas for compassion and understanding are merely a cover for his malice.

The Sea of Ice and the Icy Sea: The Arctic Frame of Frankenstein

Membership of the Semitic race and the practice of the laws of Moses, implying nothing wrong or blameable per se, cannot afford the slightest ground for special enactments and restrictions applicable exclusively to the Jews, and comparing unfavourably with those in force for Russian subjects of other races and creeds.

Letters