victim
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈvɪktɪm/
note: weak vowel merger
ipa: /ˈvɪktəm/
Forms: form: victims
Etymology: From Middle French victime, from Latin victima (“sacrificial animal”).
Senses: examples: text: The victim of the robbery gave a detailed statement.
text: crime victim
text: victim of abuse
text: play the victim
text: the youngest victims of the brutal war
text: victim of a bad decision by a rushed and overworked judge
text: According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
ref: 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
text: Flexibility, one of the hallmarks of German military doctrine, was a victim of the war.
ref: 2014, Holger H. Herwig, The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914-1918, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 116:
text: She saw herself as a victim of circumstance.
text: The villian, perceiving his danger, groped about in search of his victim, gave him another blow and disappeared.
ref: 1838, The Lady's Book, volumes 16-17, page 125:
text: “There the cause of death was soon ascertained ; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom.[…]”
ref: 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
text: The role of victim, whether represented by a character on stage or conveyed verbally, is the necessary counterpart of the evil-doer.
ref: 1980, Heather M. Arden, Fools' Plays: A Study of Satire in the Sottie, page 53:
glosses: One that is harmed—killed, injured, subjected to oppression, deceit, or otherwise adversely affected—by someone or something, especially another person or event, force, or condition; in particular
examples: text: victims of assault; the murderer's victims
text: became another victim of the latest scam
glosses: One that is harmed—killed, injured, subjected to oppression, deceit, or otherwise adversely affected—by someone or something, especially another person or event, force, or condition; in particular:
One who is harmed or killed by a crime or scam.
antonyms: culprit
criminal
assailant
aggressor
offender
examples: text: a fundraiser for victims of AIDS; a victim of a car crash
text: “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera,[…]the speed-mad fugitives from the furies of ennui, the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, […] !”
ref: 1907, Robert Chambers, chapter 6, in The Younger Set:
glosses: One that is harmed—killed, injured, subjected to oppression, deceit, or otherwise adversely affected—by someone or something, especially another person or event, force, or condition; in particular:
One who is harmed or killed by an accident or illness.
examples: a victim of his own pride; a victim of her own incompetence
the newcomer never managed to make friends, a victim of the town's deep distrust of outsiders
a victim of sexism; victims of a racist system
glosses: One that is harmed—killed, injured, subjected to oppression, deceit, or otherwise adversely affected—by someone or something, especially another person or event, force, or condition; in particular:
One who is harmed or killed as a result of other people's biases, emotions or incompetence, or their own.
examples: text: relief efforts to help victims of the hurricane
text: victim of an optical illusion; victim of a string of bad luck
text: local businesses were the main victims of the economic downturn
text: To some extent the schools and colleges are victims of conditions beyond their control: rapid population growth and mobility, country; to-city migration, unpredictable economic and social changes wrought by technology, […]
ref: 1970 March 12, United States House Committee on Education and Labor, Summary of Legislative Action of the House Education and Labor Committee for the 91st Congress (1st Session) / Educational Technology Act of 1969: Hearing, Ninety-first Congress, Second Session on H.R. 8838 ... March 12, 1970
text: As Ella Shohat (1988) incisively argued some years ago now, the historical role of 'victim' to Zionism's racialising and nationalising frame is one that has been shared – albeit not in identical ways – by Palestinians and Mizrahim, those Sephardic or Arab Jews whose presence was solicited for the structural and demographic efficacy of the fledgling Jewish state.
ref: 2012, Alisa Lebow, The Cinema of Me:
text: Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.[…]Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
ref: 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
glosses: One that is harmed—killed, injured, subjected to oppression, deceit, or otherwise adversely affected—by someone or something, especially another person or event, force, or condition; in particular:
One who is harmed or killed as a result of a natural or man-made disaster or impersonal condition.
glosses: A living being which is slain and offered as a sacrifice, usually in a religious rite.
topics: Christianity
glosses: A living being which is slain and offered as a sacrifice, usually in a religious rite.
The transfigured body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.
Synonyms: injured party
Derived terms: fall victim
fashion victim
perfect victim
play the victim card
professional victim
suicide victim
victim-blaming
victim blaming
victim feminism
victim impact statement
victim mentality
victim of one's own success
victim surcharge
Related terms: victimize
victimise
victimization
victimisation
victimism
victimist