Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who offends; one who transgresses or violates a law, whether human or divine; one who infringes rules and regulations; one who acts contrary to the rights of others, or to social rule or custom; one who displeases or annoys; one who gives offense, or incurs the dislike or resentment of another.
  • noun Synonyms Offender, Delinquent, culprit. Offender differs from delinquent in that a delinquent is, strictly, a negative transgressor, one who neglects to comply with the requirements of the law, whereas an offender is a positive transgressor, one who violates law or social rule. Both are general words, covering the offenses or delinquencies under divine or human laws, social usages, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who offends; one who violates any law, divine or human; a wrongdoer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who gives or causes offense.
  • noun A person who commits an offense against the law, a lawbreaker.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who transgresses moral or civil law

Etymologies

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