Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that engages in aggression.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The person who first attacks; one who begins hostilities or makes encroachment; an assailant or invader.

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

  • noun The person who first attacks or makes an aggression; he who begins hostility or a quarrel; an assailant.

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

  • noun The person who first attacks or makes an aggression; he who begins hostility or a quarrel; an assailant.

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

  • noun someone who attacks
  • noun a confident assertive person who acts as instigator

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word aggressor.

Examples

  • But if the aggressor is an SUV, the car driver's relative chance of dying rises to 30 to 1, because the hood of an SUV is so high off the ground.

    Boing Boing: December 1, 2002 - December 7, 2002 Archives 2002

  • The death of the aggressor is not merely connected with another means than is intended, but it itself, and as death, is useful and judged necessary to your defense.

    "Can the killing of abortionists be justified?" 2009

  • In an election year, the congressmen had been most worried about the political fallout if Israel were identified as an aggressor.

    Eisenhower 1956 David A. Nichols 2011

  • In an election year, the congressmen had been most worried about the political fallout if Israel were identified as an aggressor.

    Eisenhower 1956 David A. Nichols 2011

  • I mean, he used the word aggressor about 20 times.

    CNN Transcript Sep 20, 2006 2006

  • No violator of international law, no aggressor, is to be rewarded by mild compromises.

    The New Germany 1990

  • So we must have sufficient forces in being to turn the aggressor from the risk that his first violent blow would not lead to the complete success which he must achieve.

    The Role of the Land Forces in Modern Warfare 1952

  • Now the aggressor is not going to announce he is about to aggress, keeping his whole armed forces in the neighborhood of the great Russian Supply bases.

    The Present Condition of England 1949

  • First, she blocks the door (as she has done since December, 1941) to the Western advance of an aggressor from the Far East.

    Western Nations in Postwar Asia 1945

  • We regard it, however, as a last and if these cases do arise, we are convinced that such force must not be employed until it can be established beyond doubt that an act of violence or aggression has been committed, and then only when the guilt of the alleged aggressor is universally acknowledged.

    Léon Bourgeois - Nobel Lecture 1920

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.