AGGRESSOR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does aggressor mean? 

• AGGRESSOR (noun)
  The noun AGGRESSOR has 2 senses:

1. someone who attacks

2. a confident assertive person who acts as instigator

  Familiarity information: AGGRESSOR used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AGGRESSOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who attacks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

aggressor; assailant; assaulter; attacker

Hypernyms ("aggressor" is a kind of...):

offender; wrongdoer (a person who transgresses moral or civil law)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "aggressor"):

ambusher (an attacker who waits in a concealed position to launch a surprise attack)

avenger; retaliator (someone who takes vengeance)

beast; brute; savage; wildcat; wolf (a cruelly rapacious person)

bludgeoner (an assailant who uses a bludgeon)

bully; hooligan; roughneck; rowdy; ruffian; tough; yob; yobbo; yobo (a cruel and brutal fellow)

harasser; harrier (a persistent attacker)

iconoclast (someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions)

marauder; piranha; predator; vulture (someone who attacks in search of booty)

night rider; nightrider (member of a secret mounted band in United States South after the American Civil War; committed acts of intimidation and revenge)

raper; rapist (someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse)

shedder; spiller (an attacker who sheds or spills blood)

slasher (someone who slashes another person)

stabber (someone who stabs another person)

lapidator; stoner (an attacker who pelts the victim with stones (especially with intent to kill))

Derivation:

aggress (take the initiative and go on the offensive)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A confident assertive person who acts as instigator

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("aggressor" is a kind of...):

initiator; instigator (a person who initiates a course of action)

 Context examples 

Of course, Demi tyrannized over Daisy, and gallantly defended her from every other aggressor, while Daisy made a galley slave of herself, and adored her brother as the one perfect being in the world.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)