a bad workman blames his tools
blame
noun[ U ]
uk /bleɪm/ us /bleɪm/
B2
the situation in which people say or think that someone or something did something wrong or is responsible for something bad happening: 责备;怪罪;归咎
Health officials put the blame for the disease on(= say that the reason for the disease is) poor housing conditions.卫生官员们将该疾病的暴发归咎于恶劣的住房条件。
They tried to pin(= put) the blame for the killing on an innocent army officer.他们试图将杀人罪推到一名无辜的军官身上。
We want to find out what happened, not to apportion blame (= to say someone or something was wrong).我们想要弄清事情的真相，而不是要去怪罪谁。
 take the blame
If you take the blame for something, you say that you did it or that it is your fault: 引咎;对…负责
If anything goes wrong, I'll take the blame.出了问题我负责。
It is not the job of the investigating committee to allocate blame for the disaster.
The report assigned the blame for the accident to inadequate safety regulations.报告中，事故的责任被归咎于安全规章不健全。
She can't accept she made a mistake and now she's trying to lay the blame on her assistant.
I accept my portion of the blame.我承担部分责任。
Teachers cannot be expected to shoulder all the blame for poor exam results.考试成绩不理想，责任不能全部归到老师身上。

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Blaming & accusing
accusatory
accuse someone of a crime
accuse someone of something
accuser
accusingly
alleged
arraign
blame game
chalk
contributory negligence
haul
have someone to thank (for something)idiom
impeachment
imputation
incriminating
incrimination
nail
opprobrium
recrimination
stitch

blame | American Dictionary

blame
verb[ T ]
us/bleɪm/
to make someone or something responsible for something:
You can’t blame the government for all your troubles.
 you don’t blame someone
If you don’t blame someone for something, you understand and accept that person's reasons for it:
I don't blame her for not supporting the final budget agreement.

blame

noun[ U ]us/bleɪm/
He put the blame on everyone but himself.

Examples of blame

blame
At one level, political literature and popular ballads blamed defeat on poor strategic judgement and the administration's skewed continental priorities.
As we have seen, the report blamed parents for the state of the evacuees' footwear and clothing, and recommended needlework classes in schools.
There were also those who always blamed others for their plights.
Others blamed the government for failing to extend the 75 service.
If a person cannot properly be blamed for what she has done, then this fact makes condemnation inappropriate.
The inconclusive nature of the judicial reforms can be blamed on the internal workings of the administration.
As discussed above, historically it has been women who have been blamed for infer tility, regardless of whether the medical problem actually resides with them.
In other cases, overexposure to contemporary society was blamed or mystical explanations appealed to.
The government accused these groups of being corrupt and inefficient producers, and blamed them for the high meat prices in the urban markets.
The woman blamed the hairdresser with the apprentices who was smiling all the time.
All of the participants were asked whom or what they blamed most for the trauma.
The member state concerned cannot evade its responsibility by blaming private actors or sub-national public authorities.
Thus, drought, one of the greatest natural disasters intermittently confronting the nation, was blamed on political conflicts within the royal family.
Politicians and academics were publicly blamed for overlooking local interests.
Are we "blaming" brain chemistry for mental illness?
See all examples of blame
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.