malefactor
/ˈmalɪˌfaktə
/noun formal
A person who commits a crime or some other wrong.Good policing and tough sentencing have pushed New York to a tipping point, deterring some potential malefactors from crime....
- The cure for crime is locking up malefactors and doing so with equal and impartial enthusiasm regardless of skin colour.
- She must have been a terrible malefactor indeed if her crimes are in proportion to her penalty.
Synonyms
criminal, culprit, wrongdoer, offender, villain, lawbreaker, felon, evil-doer, convict, delinquent, sinner, transgressor, outlaw, black hat;
scoundrel, wretch, reprobate, rogue, rascal
informal crook, baddy
Australian informal crim
Law malfeasant, misfeasor
archaic miscreant, trespasser
Derivatives
malefaction
/ noun ...- Conversely, the apparatus of state censorship demands the literary malefactions it polices.
- I mean, this is malefaction, unimaginable violence against young women.
- For some of the publishing malefactions over the last three or four decades, the New Journalism surely can be held accountable.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin, from malefact- 'done wrong', from the verb malefacere, from male 'ill' + facere 'do'.