OFFENDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does offender mean? 

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

1. a person who transgresses moral or civil law

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• OFFENDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who transgresses moral or civil law

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

offender; wrongdoer

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

bad person (a person who does harm to others)

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

no-show; nonattender; truant (someone who shirks duty)

war criminal (an offender who violates international law during times of war)

supplanter; usurper (one who wrongfully or illegally seizes and holds the place of another)

evildoer; sinner (a person who sins (without repenting))

pettifogger; shyster (a person (especially a lawyer or politician) who uses unscrupulous or unethical methods)

shark (a person who is ruthless and greedy and dishonest)

miscreant; reprobate (a person without moral scruples)

backslider; recidivist; reversionist (someone who lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior)

principal ((criminal law) any person involved in a criminal offense, regardless of whether the person profits from such involvement)

fancy man; pandar; pander; panderer; pimp; ponce; procurer (someone who procures customers for whores (in England they call a pimp a ponce))

culprit; perpetrator (someone who perpetrates wrongdoing)

abuser; maltreater (someone who abuses)

molester (someone who subjects others to unwanted or improper sexual activities)

malfeasant (one guilty of malfeasance)

transgressor (someone who transgresses; someone who violates a law or command)

ganef; ganof; gonif; goniff ((Yiddish) a thief or dishonest person or scoundrel (often used as a general term of abuse))

defector; deserter (a person who abandons their duty (as on a military post))

delinquent; juvenile delinquent (a young offender)

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

convict (a person who has been convicted of a criminal offense)

barrater; barrator (someone guilty of barratry)

aggressor; assailant; assaulter; attacker (someone who attacks)

Derivation:

offend (act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises)

 Context examples 

Common activities like texting while walking seem to be among the worst offenders.

(Mobile phone could cause physical pain, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

After the first two or three strange dogs had been downed and destroyed, the white men hustled their own animals back on board and wreaked savage vengeance on the offenders.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Among those gelatine cultivations some of the very worst offenders in the world are now doing time.”

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On that occasion Professor Summerlee was the chief offender, and though he is now chastened and contrite, the matter could not be entirely forgotten.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As it fell out, however, he had that very evening, ere the sun had set, a chance of seeing how stern was the grip of the English law when it did happen to seize the offender.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had heard the word, and I knew it stood for a horrible kind of punishment common enough among the buccaneers, in which the offender is put ashore with a little powder and shot and left behind on some desolate and distant island.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I seized the opportunity to inform her who it was; and that the gentleman now coming near the offender (for the way up was very steep, and he had dropped behind), was Mr. Murdstone himself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Did any one, be it East End rough or West End patrician, intrude within the outer ropes, this corp of guardians neither argued nor expostulated, but they fell upon the offender and laced him with their whips until he escaped back out of the forbidden ground.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The great relief and satisfaction experienced by the boys made them difficult to manage; and though the dreaded Tungay brought his wooden leg in twice or thrice, and took notes of the principal offenders' names, no great impression was made by it, as they were pretty sure of getting into trouble tomorrow, do what they would, and thought it wise, no doubt, to enjoy themselves today.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He never said who was the real offender, though he smarted for it next day, and was imprisoned so many hours that he came forth with a whole churchyard-full of skeletons swarming all over his Latin Dictionary.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)