punching bag

1. 1.

   a person on whom another person vents their anger

   “he resigned because his boss used him as a punching bag”

   Broadervictim
2. 2.

   an inflated ball or bag that is suspended and punched for training in boxing

   Synonymspunch bagpunching ballpunchball

   Broaderball

Questions about punching bag

What does punching bag mean?

punching bag means "a person on whom another person vents their anger". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for punching bag?

Close synonyms include punch bag, punching ball, punchball. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is punching bag a common word?

punching bag is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.