Sacrificial part

A sacrificial part is something that may get broken or damaged so that something else can stay safe. For example, if you are playing a game and you want to make sure the game pieces don't get broken, you might use a sacrificial part to 'take the damage' instead of the pieces. It's like when a football player takes a hit so that the ball can get passed to the next player safely. The football player is the sacrificial part - they take the hit so that the others don't have to!