avenger

[uh-ven-jer]

noun

1. a person who takes revenge for an offense.

   They feel that by engaging in terrorism they become the avengers of a great wrong done to their people.

2. a person who takes revenge on behalf of someone else.

   In the film, Zorro sees himself as the avenger of the innocent.

Word History and Origins

Origin of avenger¹

aveng(e) ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

Reacher, then, is both an overt right-wing power fantasy and the kind of avenger lefties can get behind.

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He can’t “fix” what’s oppressing them, but he may be able to rig it for a favored few, becoming the heartland’s and the urban working-class’ imagined avenger when he’s really their pusher.

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Now, the avengers agreed, they were the “last bastion of defense” for the masses.

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That wouldn’t stop the health care machine from crushing more people because that cruelty and violence is systemic, not individual — and that problem can’t be fixed by a lone avenger with a gun.

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Duncan’s great-grandmother, Lucy Moore, was just 6 when U.S. soldiers and self-appointed avengers besieged her and other villagers.

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