offender

An offender is a criminal, someone who breaks the law. A first-time offender, depending on the crime, might only have to pay a fine or perform community service.

Offender is the way prison inmates and lawbreakers are often referred to in news reports or by police officers and prison staff. You might hear terms like "drug offenders," people arrested for crimes involving illegal drugs, or "juvenile offenders," young people who have broken the law. Offender comes from the verb offend, "to sin against" in the fourteenth century, from the Latin offendere, "to hit or strike against."

Definitions of offender
  1. noun
    a person who transgresses moral or civil law
    synonyms: wrongdoer
    see moresee less
    examples:
    show 18 examples...
    hide 18 examples...
    Ananias
    a habitual liar (after a New Testament character who was struck dead for lying)
    Benedict Arnold
    United States general and traitor in the American Revolution; in 1780 his plan to surrender West Point to the British was foiled (1741-1801)
    William H. Bonney
    United States outlaw who was said to have killed 21 men (1859-1881)
    Alphonse Capone
    United States gangster who terrorized Chicago during prohibition until arrested for tax evasion (1899-1947)
    Guy Fawkes
    English conspirator who was executed for his role in a plot to blow up James I and the Houses of Parliament (1570-1606)
    Jack the Ripper
    an unidentified English murderer in the 19th century
    Jesse James
    United States outlaw who fought as a Confederate soldier and later led a band of outlaws that robbed trains and banks in the West until he was murdered by a member of his own gang (1847-1882)
    Robert MacGregor
    Scottish clan leader and outlaw who was the subject of a 1817 novel by Sir Walter Scott (1671-1734)
    St. Mary Magdalene
    sinful woman Jesus healed of evil spirits; she became a follower of Jesus
    Titus Oates
    English conspirator who claimed that there was a Jesuit plot to assassinate Charles II (1649-1705)
    John Wilkes Booth
    United States actor and assassin of President Lincoln (1838-1865)
    Lee Harvey Oswald
    United States assassin of President John F. Kennedy (1939-1963)
    Jean Laffite
    French pirate who aided the United States in the War of 1812 and received an official pardon for his crimes (1780-1826)
    Sir Henry Morgan
    a Welsh buccaneer who raided Spanish colonies in the West Indies for the English (1635-1688)
    Bartholomew Roberts
    a Welsh pirate credited with having taken more than 400 ships (1682-1722)
    Edward Thatch
    an English pirate who operated in the Caribbean and off the Atlantic coast of North America (died in 1718)
    Dick Turpin
    English highwayman (1706-1739)
    Khayr ad-Din
    Barbary pirate (died in 1546)
    types:
    show 70 types...
    hide 70 types...
    abuser, maltreater
    someone who abuses
    aggressor, assailant, assaulter, attacker
    someone who attacks
    barrater, barrator
    someone guilty of barratry
    convict
    a person who has been convicted of a criminal offense
    beguiler, cheat, cheater, deceiver, slicker, trickster
    someone who leads you to believe something that is not true
    delinquent, juvenile delinquent
    a young offender
    defector, deserter
    a person who abandons their duty (as on a military post)
    ganef, ganof, gonif, goniff
    (Yiddish) a thief or dishonest person or scoundrel (often used as a general term of abuse)
    transgressor
    someone who transgresses; someone who violates a law or command
    malfeasant
    one guilty of malfeasance
    molester
    someone who subjects others to unwanted or improper sexual activities
    no-show, nonattender, truant
    someone who shirks duty
    culprit, perpetrator
    someone who perpetrates wrongdoing
    principal
    (criminal law) any person involved in a criminal offense, regardless of whether the person profits from such involvement
    backslider, recidivist, reversionist
    someone who lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior
    miscreant, reprobate
    a person without moral scruples
    shark
    a person who is ruthless and greedy and dishonest
    pettifogger, shyster
    a person (especially a lawyer or politician) who uses unscrupulous or unethical methods
    evildoer, sinner
    a person who sins (without repenting)
    supplanter, usurper
    one who wrongfully or illegally seizes and holds the place of another
    war criminal
    an offender who violates international law during times of war
    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
    bluffer, four-flusher
    a person who tries to bluff other people
    bully, hooligan, roughneck, rowdy, ruffian, tough, yob, yobbo, yobo
    a cruel and brutal fellow
    claim jumper
    one who illegally occupies property to which another has a legal claim
    chiseler, chiseller, defrauder, gouger, grifter, scammer, swindler
    a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud
    criminal, crook, felon, malefactor, outlaw
    someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime
    decoy, steerer
    a beguiler who leads someone into danger (usually as part of a plot)
    deviationist
    an ideological defector from the party line (especially from orthodox communism)
    dodger, fox, slyboots
    a shifty deceptive person
    betrayer, double-crosser, double-dealer, traitor, two-timer
    a person who says one thing and does another
    draft dodger, draft evader
    someone who is drafted and illegally refuses to serve
    defalcator, embezzler, peculator
    someone who violates a trust by taking (money) for his own use
    falsifier
    someone who falsifies
    finagler, wangler
    a deceiver who uses crafty misleading methods
    first offender
    someone convicted for the first time
    fondler
    a molester who touches the intimate parts of the victim
    counterfeiter, forger
    someone who makes copies illegally
    fortune hunter
    a person who seeks wealth through marriage
    figurehead, front, front man, nominal head, straw man, strawman
    a person used as a cover for some questionable activity
    harasser, harrier
    a persistent attacker
    dissembler, dissimulator, hypocrite, phoney, phony, pretender
    a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives
    iconoclast
    someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions
    imitator, impersonator
    someone who (fraudulently) assumes the appearance of another
    fake, faker, fraud, imposter, impostor, pretender, pseud, pseudo, role player, sham, shammer
    a person who makes deceitful pretenses
    liar, prevaricator
    a person who has lied or who lies repeatedly
    magdalen
    a reformed prostitute
    marauder, piranha, predator, vulture
    someone who attacks in search of booty
    misleader
    someone who leads astray (often deliberately)
    charlatan, mountebank
    a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes
    night rider, nightrider
    member of a secret mounted band in United States South after the American Civil War; committed acts of intimidation and revenge
    obscurantist
    a person who is deliberately vague
    degenerate, deviant, deviate, pervert
    a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior
    raper, rapist
    someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse
    renegade
    someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw
    sandbagger
    someone who deceives you about his true nature or intent in order to take advantage of you
    black sheep, scapegrace
    a reckless and unprincipled reprobate
    sex offender
    someone who has been convicted of a sex crime
    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)
    two-timer
    someone who deceives a lover or spouse by carrying on a sexual relationship with somebody else
    loan shark, moneylender, shylock, usurer
    someone who lends money at excessive rates of interest
    utterer
    someone who circulates forged banknotes or counterfeit coins
    walk-in
    an operative who initiates his own defection (usually to a hostile country) for political asylum
    wretch
    performs some wicked deed
    type of:
    bad person
    a person who does harm to others
Word Family