Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BLAME, n.

1. Censure; reprehension; imputation of a fault; disapprobation; an expression of disapprobation for something deemed to be wrong. Let me bear the blame forever. – Gen. xliii.
2. Fault; crime; sin; that which is deserving of censure or disapprobation. That we should be holy and without blame before him in love. – Eph. i.
3. Hurt; injury. And glancing down his shield, from blame him fairly blest. – Spenser. The sense of this word, as used by Spenser, proves that it is a derivative from the root of blemish. To blame, in the phrase, He is to blame, signifies blamable, to be blamed. This is a pure Saxon phrase. A like use of to is seen in to-day, to-night, and in together, a compound. Blame is not strictly a charge or accusation of a fault; but it implies an opinion in the censuring party, that the person censured is faulty. Blame is the act or expression of disapprobation for what is supposed to be wrong.