A person who is easily deceived or blamed for someone else's wrongdoing; a scapegoat or an easy target.
Possibly derived from the name 'Patsy' or 'Patzie,' or from Italian 'pazzo' meaning 'fool.' The origin is uncertain, but it emerged in American slang by the early 20th century.
Lee Harvey Oswald claimed to be a 'patsy' for JFK's assassination, which brought this slang term into historical consciousness—it's an American word that means someone set up to take the fall.
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