punching bag

an inflated or stuffed bag, usually suspended, punched with the fists as an exercise.

Informal. a person serving as an object of abuse; scapegoat: I told him that I wasn't going to be a punching bag for anyone.

Origin of punching bag

First recorded in 1895–1900

Hopkins was no man to serve as a punching-bag for a pessimistic tobacconist.

The Voice of the City |O. Henry
The punching-bag and other purely masculine paraphernalia had been banished to his own room, and the living-room, alas!

Kildares of Storm |Eleanor Mercein Kelly
The Punching-bag Platform, illustrated by Fig. 257, should be made thirty inches square and suspended from the shed or a wall.

The Boy Craftsman |A. Neely Hall
I made it into a tight bundle and hung it on a springy limb to use for a punching-bag.

Jim Spurling, Fisherman |Albert Walter Tolman

"I lost my home and punching-bag at it once," he said, musingly.

Caybigan |James Hopper