take the fall
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Receive blame or punishment, typically in the place of another person.
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Chịu trách nhiệm hoặc hình phạt, thường thay cho người khác
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
But how many of those blokes carrying signs outside Black Comedy can take the falls I do eight times a week?
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “take the fall” mean?
Receive blame or punishment, typically in the place of another person.
Is “take the fall” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.