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avenger

avenger

138 6.3
A person who hurts others to get revenge
  • noun
  • /əˈvɛnʤər/
translation icon : vengador
  • After the betrayal, she vowed to be an avenger, punishing those who wronged her.

Trump is betting that the country now wants a real Avenger.

Examples

  • If ever a mortal played a hand in thy demise, leave him to the Great Avenger, the Almighty.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • I charge you with a mission, as she who is the avenger of my displeasures.

  • I mean, who appointed you avenger of my department?

  • No one seemed to be following, least of all the avenger with the knife.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

    Academic text (2018)
  • The hero became an avenger after witnessing the injustice done to his family.

  • In the movie, the avenger seeks retribution for the crimes committed against the innocent.

Synonyms

punisher
vsavenger
2 5.3

A person who makes someone suffer for doing something wrong

is motivated by personal vengeance and harm rather than official enforcement
revenger
vsavenger
1 7.4

A person who tries to harm someone who harmed them

aims to inflict punishment or harm in return rather than only quick payback
retaliator
vsavenger
7.4

A person who harms someone to get revenge

prefers to inflict deliberate punishment rather than immediate direct reply
retributor
vsavenger
9.4

A person or thing that punishes people for wrong actions

acts from personal desire to harm rather than from a sense of formal justice

How Punishing

avenger
138 6.3
punisher
2 5.3
judge
2.7
adjudicator
  • Formal
3 7.7

Surface Forms

avenger singular
avengers plural

Morphology

avenger = avenge (transparent) = avenge + er

The noun is a straightforward agent nominalization formed by adding the productive suffix '-er' to the verb 'avenge'.

Etymology

Avenger comes from the verb avenge, which originally meant 'to take revenge' or 'to punish' and is related to the word vengeance. So an avenger is someone who seeks to punish or get revenge for a wrong.