offender
n. countablen. a person who breaks a law or a rule. You often hear this word in the news when someone is caught doing something wrong.
n. a person who commits an illegal act or a violation of a specified rule. Often used in legal contexts or to describe something that causes a problem.
The police caught the offender shortly after the crime.
First-time offenders are often given a warning or a small fine instead of a prison sentence.
Environmental agencies are cracking down on repeat offenders who continue to dump industrial waste into the local river system despite previous warnings.
From Middle English offendour, offender, offendir, equivalent to offend + -er.
Often modified by adjectives like 'first-time', 'repeat', or 'persistent' to describe a person's history of rule-breaking.