victim
/ˈvɪktɪm
/noun
1A person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action: victims of domestic violence earthquake victims...
- Here is the man who is first to raise money or organise events to help victims of crime or the needy, a man with human compassion.
- It estimates that one woman in four now suffers as a victim of domestic violence.
- Tragic mums whose children were victims of gun crime were today gathering at a unique event to tackle armed gangs.
Synonyms
sufferer, injured party, casualty, injured person, wounded person;
dead person, fatality, loss;
loser
1.1A person who is tricked or duped: the victim of a hoax...
- Among the victims he duped were people from Lancashire, Bury and Nottinghamshire.
- Now fraudsters are applying similar tricks against potential enterprise victims.
- The latest MyTob email worms have adopted fresh tactics in an attempt to trick victims.
Synonyms
dupe, easy target, easy prey, fair game, sitting target, everybody's fool, stooge, gull, fool, Aunt Sally;
target, prey, quarry, object, subject, recipient, focus
informal sitting duck, sucker, fall guy, pushover, soft touch, easy touch, chump, muggins, charlie
North American informal patsy, pigeon, sap, schlemiel, mark
Australian/New Zealand informal dill
1.2A person who has come to feel helpless and passive in the face of misfortune or ill-treatment: I saw myself as a victim [as modifier]: a victim mentality...
- In the real world, the people of Liverpool have no more of a victim mentality than the people of Norwich.
- Yet we know that even in such utterly abject circumstances, these people were not simply passive victims.
- But women have never been simply passive victims of either side of this process.
1.3A living creature killed as a religious sacrifice: sacrificial victims for the ritual festivals...
- The captives were then used as sacrificial victims to the gods of the victor; one ritual feeding another.
- Legend records that at the dedication of the former some 20000 human victims were sacrificed.
- If not, and if some want to draw lots to choose a sacrificial victim, may they force everyone to join in?
Synonyms
sacrifice, offering, burnt offering, scapegoat
Phrases
fall victim to
Origin
Late 15th century (denoting a creature killed as a religious sacrifice): from Latin victima.
Latin victima, the source of this word, originally meant an animal killed as a religious sacrifice. Use of a person who is harmed by another is mid 17th century.