Dictionary

victim

Etymology

From Middle French victime, from Latin victima.

Pronunciation

IPA: /ˈvɪktɪm/
(weak vowel) IPA: /ˈvɪktəm/

Noun

victim (plural victims)

One that is harmed—killed, injured, subjected to oppression, deceived, or otherwise adversely affected—by someone or something, especially another person or event, force, or condition; in particular:
the youngest victims of the brutal war
victim of a bad decision by a rushed and overworked judge
1. One who is harmed or killed by a crime or scam.
  Antonyms: culprit, criminal, assailant, aggressor, offender
  victims of assault; the murderer's victims
  became another victim of the latest scam
  - 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:
    “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. […]”
2. One who is harmed or killed by an accident or illness.
  a fundraiser for victims of AIDS; a victim of a car crash
3. One who is harmed or killed as a result of other people's biases, emotions or incompetence, or their own.
  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
4. One who is harmed or killed as a result of a natural or man-made disaster or impersonal condition.
  relief efforts to help victims of the hurricane
  victim of an optical illusion; victim of a string of bad luck
  local businesses were the main victims of the economic downturn
  - 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:
    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, […]
A living being which is slain and offered as a sacrifice, usually in a religious rite.
1. (by extension, Christianity) The transfigured body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.