ATTACKER (attacker)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: attacker   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does attacker mean? 

• ATTACKER (noun)
  The noun ATTACKER has 1 sense:

1. someone who attacks

  Familiarity information: ATTACKER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ATTACKER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who attacks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

aggressor; assailant; assaulter; attacker

Hypernyms ("attacker" is a kind of...):

offender; wrongdoer (a person who transgresses moral or civil law)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "attacker"):

ambusher (an attacker who waits in a concealed position to launch a surprise attack)

avenger; retaliator (someone who takes vengeance)

beast; brute; savage; wildcat; wolf (a cruelly rapacious person)

bludgeoner (an assailant who uses a bludgeon)

bully; hooligan; roughneck; rowdy; ruffian; tough; yob; yobbo; yobo (a cruel and brutal fellow)

harasser; harrier (a persistent attacker)

iconoclast (someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions)

marauder; piranha; predator; vulture (someone who attacks in search of booty)

night rider; nightrider (member of a secret mounted band in United States South after the American Civil War; committed acts of intimidation and revenge)

raper; rapist (someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse)

shedder; spiller (an attacker who sheds or spills blood)

slasher (someone who slashes another person)

stabber (someone who stabs another person)

lapidator; stoner (an attacker who pelts the victim with stones (especially with intent to kill))

Derivation:

attack (begin to injure)

attack (set to work upon; turn one's energies vigorously to a task)

attack (attack in speech or writing)

attack (take the initiative and go on the offensive)

attack (launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with)

attack (attack someone physically or emotionally)

 Context examples 

Harrison was to be turned from the defender into the attacker.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But due to this flaw, an attacker can send malware or ransomware on the websites.

(Digital security researchers publicly reveal vulnerability in WPA2 WiFi protocol, Wikinews)

The burly De Clisson, however, restored the hopes of the attackers by beating to the ground Sir Thomas Wake of Yorkshire.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Exploring the flaw which affected every device the researchers had tested, National Cyber Security Centre of the UK said "the attacker would have to be physically close to the target".

(Digital security researchers publicly reveal vulnerability in WPA2 WiFi protocol, Wikinews)

Uncertain who were their attackers, and unable to tell their English enemies from their newly-arrived Breton allies, the Spanish knights rode wildly hither and thither in aimless fury.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted.

(Digital security researchers publicly reveal vulnerability in WPA2 WiFi protocol, Wikinews)

Yet it would have fared ill with them had not the archers from either side closed in upon the flanks of the attackers, and pressed them very slowly and foot by foot down the long slope, until they were on the plain once more, where their fellows were already rallying for a fresh assault.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)