ˈviktə̇m noun
( -s )
Etymology: Latin victima; akin to Old English wīh, wēoh, wīg idol, image, Old High German wīh, wīhi holy, Old Norse vē temple, Gothic weihs holy, Sanskrit vinakti he separates, sets apart; basic meaning: to set apart, single out
1. : a living being sacrificed to some deity or in the performance of a religious rite
2. : someone put to death, tortured, or mulcted by another : a person subjected to oppression, deprivation, or suffering
a victim of war
a victim of intolerance
fell a victim to prohibition era gangsters
3. : someone who suffers death, loss, or injury in an undertaking of his own
became a victim of his own ambition
4. : someone tricked, duped, or subjected to hardship : someone badly used or taken advantage of
felt himself the victim of his brother's shrewdness — W.F.Davis
little boys, as well as adolescent girls, became the willing victims of sailors and marines — R.M.Lovett
Synonyms:
prey , quarry : victim applies to anyone who suffers either as a result of ruthless design or incidentally or accidentally
the victim sacrificed on these occasions is a hen, or several hens — J.G.Frazer
was the girl born to be a victim; to be always disliked and crushed as if she were too fine for this world — Joseph Conrad
lest such a policy precipitate a hot war of which western Europe would be the victim — Quincy Wright
prey may designate a victim clutched, seized, captured by or as if by an enemy, hunter, or wild beast
others hold the battleship to be an obsolete arm, expensive beyond its worth, useful only for fighting other battleships and the easy prey of the submarine and the airplane — R.L.Buell
an old castle from which the robber barons in the old days could see their prey coming and rush down upon the caravan to overpower it — W.A.White
she still went recklessly on, her eyes confused by the rain, her brain a prey to wild and despairing thoughts — William Black
quarry is applicable to the object of a chase, especially by hounds, or to a person or thing relentlessly pursued or vigorously quested after
with grain in their storerooms, and mountain sheep and deer for their quarry, they rose gradually from the condition of savagery — Willa Cather
government agents tracking their quarry through the underworld of several cities