word of the day: patsy

The word of the day is patsy:

colloq. (orig. U.S.).

A person who is easily taken advantage of, esp. by being deceived, cheated, or blamed for something; a dupe, a scapegoat. (OED)

 

 

"But whatever possibilities Seyfried may have as an actress are eradicated by the filmmakers' strategy of making their heroine-victim a woman without will, direction, ideas, temperament, unintentionally following the scheme of classic pornography.  They also ignore the real Lovelace's many attempts to reinvent herself throughout a long media career.  (She wrote not one book about herself but four.)  Traynor certainly treated her savagely, but Lovelace - a complicated, determined, often desperate woman - was something more than his patsy."

 - David Denby, "Social history: 'The Butler' and 'Lovelace'", 26 August 2013 The New Yorker