Definitions for "Whipping Boy"
someone punished for the errors of others
a way of describing someone who takes punishment rightly due to someone else
A whipping boy, in feudal times, was a boy of the same age but lower rank raised with a prince or nobleman as a playmate, who was whipped in his place when the young nobleman -- too high in standing to be beaten by anyone below his father, who was often unavailable -- misbehaved or slacked in his studies, as a psychological 'indirect punishment'.