lawbreaker

[ law-brey-ker ]

noun

1. a person who breaks or violates the law.

   Synonyms: perpetrator, criminal, transgressor

lawbreaker

/ ˈlɔːˌbreɪkə /

noun

1. a person who breaks the law
2. informal.
   something that does not conform with legal standards or requirements

Derived Forms

• ˈlawˌbreaking, nounadjective

Other Words From

• law·break·ing noun adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of lawbreaker¹

before 1050; Middle English lawbreker; replacing Old English lahbreca. See law ¹, breaker ¹

Example Sentences

We will act with full force against enemies from without and lawbreakers from within in order to restore calm to the state of Israel.

From Washington Post

For more than half a decade, he produced “World’s Dumbest,” a show that focused on the least-intelligent elements of various parts of society, including lawbreakers.

From Washington Post

Snowden is the lawbreaker here, and his law-breaking is now being used to do damage to the United States as an end in itself.

From The Daily Beast

Since then Wade, besides insulting me, has proved himself a lawbreaker.

From Project Gutenberg

Breach of taboo rendered not only the individual lawbreaker but the whole tribe, however innocent, liable to punishment.

From Project Gutenberg

Only Danny was neither a tyro nor a humbug, and had he not been a lawbreaker the world would have been to some extent the loser.

From Project Gutenberg

A shadowy, powerful group that slip silently between the stars, ready to bring the interstellar lawbreaker low.

From Project Gutenberg

The lawbreaker who comes with an army at his back cannot be served with a sheriff's warrant, nor arrested by a constable.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• blackmailer
• criminal
• crook
• culprit
• delinquent
• felon
• fugitive
• gangster
• hoodlum
• hooligan
• mobster
• offender
• racketeer
• scofflaw