How to Use fall guy in a Sentence

fall guy

noun
Definition of fall guynext
Synonyms for fall guynext
  • His lawyers will argue that he was set up as a fall guy for crimes he had no part in.
  • Consumers have been the fall guy for the past 30 years.
    — Natalie Rademacher, Twin Cities, 9 Dec. 2019
  • If everyone was in the loop, who’s gonna be the fall guy?
    — J.d. Crowe | [email protected], al, 21 Nov. 2019
  • The steroid era did not even produce a fall guy within the sport.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2022
  • Sneader failed to set up a fall guy and therefore had to take the fall himself.
    — George Bradt, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2021
  • Explain why, and how, in your view, the hunting guide, Theo Bronkhorst, became the fall guy.
    — National Geographic, 28 Apr. 2018
  • Brown looked like the obvious fall guy when things fell apart.
    — Andrew Sharp, SI.com, 6 Mar. 2018
  • Love was a fall guy when he was called out during a Cavs team meeting last month.
    — Alysha Tsuji, For The Win, 16 Feb. 2018
  • Mays, who now holds the lowest military rank of E1, should not be able to ask the court to view him as the fall guy, Jones said.
    — Megan Rose, ProPublica, 23 Sep. 2022
  • Maybe Jason Garrett shouldn't have been the fall guy after all.
    — Lorenzo Reyes, USA TODAY, 5 Oct. 2020
  • And Jim being the husband … and that's being the typical fall guy, the husband must have done it.
    — Erin Moriarty, CBS News, 25 Feb. 2023
  • Barber was christened into the fall guy’s club decades ago.
    — Matt Williams, Dallas News, 21 Nov. 2020
  • As Beth and Dean deal with the aftermath of Dean’s arrest, the ladies have to find another fall guy to take his place.
    — Washington Post, 20 Mar. 2021
  • Meanwhile, is this yet another year of making the batting coach the fall guy?
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Aug. 2019
  • He was sacked just two months after his first official game in charge and made the fall guy for the club's poor performances.
    — Matias Grez, CNN, 21 Aug. 2020
  • In the Times story, the role of fall guy is assumed largely by Hearthside Food Solutions.
    — Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 28 Feb. 2023
  • Brown could end up being the fall guy even if there are legit reasons beyond his control.
    — Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY, 28 Feb. 2020
  • But sometimes in sports, someone loses their job for a bad performance on the biggest stage and perhaps Brown will be the fall guy.
    — Jamie Samuelsen, Detroit Free Press, 2 Dec. 2019
  • Outsiders make convenient fall guys for pandemics; the Black Death led to massacres of Jews across Europe.
    — Olga Khazan, The Atlantic, 15 Apr. 2020
  • When Judas hangs himself in the chamber of tableaux, the fall guy becomes a static and perennial object of hate.
    — Dominic Green, WSJ, 12 Sep. 2022
  • Change agents that do survive their change either lead an evolutionary change or have a fall guy.
    — George Bradt, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2021
  • Jimmy at this point in Saul does not know that Nacho is dead, and may have just hung onto him as an easy fall guy for future cartel shenanigans.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 12 July 2022
  • That felt like football having its fun, turning the hero of the last game into the fall guy, and that sense of a sport toying with its champion was compounded with the second goal.
    — Jonathan Wilson, SI.com, 27 June 2018
  • The fall guy may be coordinator Gus Bradley, whose defense has wasted those leads.
    — Nick Canepa Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Nov. 2020
  • The fall guy was Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ general manager.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2022
  • Those desperate to pin the wide-ranging failures of 2023 on single fall guy is understandable, yet entire time zones off the mark.
    — Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Aug. 2023
  • Michael Littlejohn is a fall guy who put himself through college guiding catfish and crappie trips at Cedar Creek.
    — Matt Williams, Dallas News, 21 Nov. 2020
  • Officials in Wuhan are the most obvious fall guys for the crisis, and several have already offered to resign.
    — James Griffiths, CNN, 5 Feb. 2020
  • Royce Simmons is another fall guy who discovered the magic of autumn cat fishing many moons ago.
    — Matt Williams, Dallas News, 21 Nov. 2020
  • Tucker agrees to become the fall guy in a setup, thus providing himself with an alibi for a likely murder rap.
    — Jeff Calder, ajc, 21 July 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fall guy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: