| 释义 |
victim, n.|ˈvɪktɪm|
Also 5 vyctym, 6–7 victime.
[ad. L. victima (in senses 1, 2). So F. victime (16th c.), Sp. and Pg. victima, It. vittima. The Rhemish translators of the Bible were the first to make free use of the word as English, and its general currency dates only from the latter part of the 17th century.]
1. a. A living creature killed and offered as a sacrifice to some deity or supernatural power.
1497Bp. Alcock Mons Perfect. C iij/2 Obedyence excellith al vyctyms [printed vyayms] and holocaustis in the whiche was sacrefyced y⊇ flesshe of other creatures. 1582N. T. (Rhem.) Mark ix. 49 Euery victime shal be salted with salt. Ibid., Acts vii. 42 Did you offer victims and hostes vnto me? 1609Bible (Douay) Lev. i. 2, etc. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage i. vi. 33 Of sacrificing there were from the beginning two kinds, the one called Gifts or oblations of things without life: the other Victims (so our Rhemists have taught us to English the word Victima) slaine sacrifices of birds and beasts. 1616Bullokar Eng. Expos., Victime, a sacrifice, a beast offered in sacrifice. [Also in Cockeram, Blount, etc.] 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 784 Select four Brawny Bulls for Sacrifice,..From the slain Victims pour the streaming Blood. 1705Addison Italy 3 Ulysses here the Blood of Victims shed, And rais'd the pale Assembly of the Dead. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Sacrifice, The Priest..then took Wine in a Vessel..and..poured it between the Horns of the Victim. 1772Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) I. 202 The Mexicans used human victims. 1840Thirlwall Greece VII. lv. 105 He had inquired of Peithagoras as to the nature of the tokens which he had seen in the victims. 1867Tennyson Victim v, But the Priest was happy, His victim won. Ibid. vi, The rites prepared, the victim bared.
fig.1646Crashaw Carmen Deo Nostro, Hymn, Thou art love's victime, & must dy A death more mysticall & high. 1656Cowley Pindar. Odes, Isaiah xxxiv. ii, The Altar all the Land, and all Men in't the Victims are. 1732T. Lediard Sethos II. x. 374 These 20,000 men were a victim to save the rest of their nation. 1772Junius Lett. lxix. (1788) 367, I have bound the victim, and dragged him to the altar. 1818Shelley Julian 376 The red scaffold..May ask some willing victim. 1847Tennyson Princ. iv. 112 Knaves are men, That..dress the victim to the offering up. 1855Kingsley Heroes iv. (1868) 50, I am accursed, devoted as a victim to the sea-gods.
b. Applied to Christ as an offering for mankind.
1736Butler Analogy ii. v. ⁋6 [Jesus Christ] is described..in the Old Testament, under the same characters of a priest, and an expiatory victim. 1745W. Robertson in Transl. & Paraphr. (Sc. Ch.) vi. 8 All Heaven's Wrath tho' due to us On him, our Victim, lay. a1833J. Dick Lect. Theol. (1834) III. lviii. 119 In the other [case], it was a man, the Son of the living God, who was the victim. c1865W. C. Dix Hymn, ‘Alleluia, sing to Jesus’, Thou on earth both Priest and Victim. 1870H. Martin Atonement iv. 74 They evidently concentrate attention..on that aspect in which Christ appears as the piacular victim, or the Lamb of Sacrifice.
2. a. A person who is put to death or subjected to torture by another; one who suffers severely in body or property through cruel or oppressive treatment.
1660R. Coke Justice Vind. Ep. Ded. 5, I designe no more than to demonstrate, that it was..the iniquity of the times which made him [Charles I] a victim, and your sacred Self an Exile. 1691tr. Emiliane's Frauds Rom. Monks (ed. 3) 61 The great Provost..was one of the number of these unhappy Victims. 1783Crabbe Village i. 283 A potent quack, long versed in human ills, Who first insults the victim whom he kills. 1785Burke Sp. Nawab Arcot's Debts Wks. 1882 I. 331 Among the victims to this magnificent plan of universal plunder..you have all heard..of an Indian Chief called Hyder Ali Khan. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 32 If he had not died the victim of a tyrant. 1854Card. Wiseman Fabiola ii. xxii. 263 The hostile passions of heathen Rome..excited by the coming slaughter of so many christian victims. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 169 The list of his possessions, lands of Earl Harold, of the Sheriff Mœrleswegen, and of a crowd of smaller victims, is simply endless.
b. One who is reduced or destined to suffer under some oppressive or destructive agency.
1718Prior Solomon iii. 170 Behold where Age's wretched Victim lies: See his Head trembling, and his half-clos'd Eyes. 1742Gray Prosp. Eton Coll. 52 Alas! regardless of their doom The little victims play! 1799Monthly Rev. XXX. 539 This new poet..is M. Esmenard,..at present a victim of the persecution which has followed that event. 1827Scott Highl. Widow v, About the centre of the procession..came the unfortunate victim of military law. 1865Visct. Milton & W. B. Cheadle N.-W. Passage viii. (1867) 124 We..even went to the length of fixing upon one useless, toothless old fellow [sc. a dog] as a victim to our appetites, in case of extremity. 1890C. B. Pitman tr. Boscowitz's Earthquakes 211 The houses which had only partially fallen in continued to collapse and make fresh victims.
c. One who perishes or suffers in health, etc., from some enterprise or pursuit voluntarily undertaken.
1726–46Thomson Winter 487 The last of old Lycurgus' sons, The generous victim to that vain attempt To save a rotten state. 1832G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 259 Frauenhofer died..at an early age; a victim, it is said, to unremitting attention bestowed upon an unhealthy employment. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Montaigne Wks. (Bohn) I. 338 The studious class are their own victims. 1852C. M. Yonge Cameos I. xxxi. 271 While here he narrowly escaped becoming a seventh royal victim to the Crusade.
d. In weaker sense: One who suffers some injury, hardship, or loss, is badly treated or taken advantage of, etc.
1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxvii. (1787) III. 23 Gregory soon became the victim of malice and envy. 1796H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 342 That spirit of intolerance..of which they are the victims. 1835Ure Phil. Manuf. 42 Several individuals..are to a very great extent the victims at least, if not the dupes, of scheming managers. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xx, He went off..without further ceremony, and left his respected victim to settle the bill. 1875Abp. Benson in A. C. Benson Life (1899) I. xi. 393, I am that miserable man the Victim in Residence, and there is a Cathedral Festival to-day.
3. In the phrase to fall a victim to (some thing or person), in preceding senses.
1764H. Walpole Otranto i, Manfred will suspect you,..and you will fall a victim to his resentment. 1769Robertson Chas. V, iv. Wks. 1813 V. 411 Some officers, who rashly attempted to restrain them, fell victims to their fury. 1803Ellicott Jrnl. 13 Many of the inhabitants that season fell victims to the yellow fever. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 46 The Flemish and other foreign residents fell helpless victims to the rage of the populace. 1884Times (weekly ed.) 5 Sept. 17/2 It appeared as if he had fallen a victim to an assassin. Ibid. 19 Sept. 6/4 He fell a victim to goodness of heart and to the interest he felt in his people.
4. attrib. (chiefly appositive) and Comb., as victim beast, victim carrion, victim-flock, victim-hero, victim horde, victim-lamb, victim ox; victim-laden adj.; victim-ship, a ship carrying victims.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 733 The Victim Ox, that was for Altars prest,..Sunk of Himself. 1697― æneid iv. 293 Blood of victim beasts enriched the ground. 1725Pope Odyss. xiii. 27 A victim Ox beneath the sacred hand Of great Alcinous falls. 1812Byron Ch. Har. ii. lxxxix, The Battle-field, where Persia's victim horde First bow'd beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword. 1835Thirlwall Greece I. v. 133 Deceived by the black sail of the victim-ship, which Theseus had forgotten to exchange. 1843Card. Wiseman Ess., Minor Rites (1853) I. 491 There is one altar..on which the same Victim-Lamb reposes. a1847Eliza Cook Thanksgiving iv, I could not sue for mercy at a victim-laden shrine. 1851Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Wind. ii. 660 The tyrant should take heed to what he doth, Since every victim-carrion turns to use. 1868J. H. Newman Verses Var. Occasions 171, I cleanse Thy victim-flock, and bring them near In holiest wise. 1962John o' London's 1 Mar. 211/3 Young Cordier..isn't the perfect victim-hero. 1975P. Fussell Gt. War & Mod. Memory i. 8 Air bombardment, which was supposed to shorten the war, prolonged it by inviting those who were its targets to cast themselves in the role of victim-heroes and thus stiffen their resolve. Ibid. vi. 220 Guy Crouchback, Waugh's victim-hero.
Hence ˈvictim v. trans., to slay in sacrifice.
1671Crowne Juliana i. 11 Barbarous Idol, not content with blood, But must have kingdoms victim'd at thy altars! 1694― Married Beau iv. 54 I'll rather victim A hecatomb of such as thou to her.
▸ victims support n. (also victims' support) chiefly Brit. = victim support n. at Additions; usu. attrib. and with capital initials, esp. in Victims Support Scheme.
1973E. Turner (title of rep., Bristol constabulary) in P. Rock Helping Victims of Crime (1990) iv. 142 NACRO South Wales and Severn Valley Region project: Bristol *Victims Support Scheme. 1993P. Bryers Adultery Dept. (BNC) 106 He was a volunteer with the Victims Support Scheme. 2002Orange County (Santa Ana, Calif.) Reg. (Nexis) 12 May She transformed rage into the raw substance from which she forged her life—founding a victims' support group.
▸ victim support n. chiefly Brit. the provision of advice and counselling to victims of crime (or occas. illness or accident); (also with capital initials) any of various schemes or groups offering such assistance (and sometimes also involved in lobbying for changes in legislation, etc.), esp. the charity (registered in 1979) founded in England in 1974 and now operating in other countries; freq. attrib.
1974E. Turner (title of unpublished rep.) in P. Rock Helping Victims of Crime (1990) iv. 143 Brief review of the Bristol *Victim Support Scheme. 1979L. A. Medina et al. (title) Evaluation of the juvenile victim support program 10-D: final report. 1990Health Educ. Jrnl. 49 173/2 (table) The range of counselling services should be expanded, including alcohol, victim support and generic services. 1998Community Care 12 Feb. 18/1 Victim Support sees victims shortly after the crime, usually as referrals by the police or as self-referrals. |