pursuer

American  

[per-soo-er] / pərˈsu ər /

noun

1. a person or thing that pursues.

2. Scots Law, Ecclesiastical Law. a plaintiff or complainant.

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Etymology

Origin of pursuer

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; pursue + -er ¹

Explanation

A pursuer is someone who is chasing someone or something. You could be a pursuer of truth and beauty, or perhaps a pursuer of the kid who took your lunch money. To pursue is to chase something, like a dog pursuing a squirrel. In that situation, the dog is a pursuer. Someone who’s trying to ask someone else out on a date is a pursuer. When the police are on a manhunt for a criminal, the police are pursuers. You could also say someone is a pursuer of a goal, like a pursuer of a medical degree. All pursuers want something and they're going after it.

Example Sentences

But instead of being treated like a nobody when he drops his mercenary moniker, Djimon Hounsou's Korath the Pursuer gushes like a fanboy.

From Salon • Aug. 19, 2021

All this adds a note of gloom even to the tensest moments in this drama: Pursuer or pursued, no one’s heart is entirely in this spy game.

From New York Times • Jun. 8, 2016

A version of this review appears in print on January 22, 2014, on page C1 of the with the headline: Trotsky’s Pursuer Finds a Pursuer To Call His Own .

From New York Times • Jan. 21, 2014

The conflict between Hunter Pidgeon and Pursuer Sanders, the Gestapo chief, puts a man of good will up against a tough guy who thinks that might makes right.

From Time Magazine Archive

Pursuer and pursued vanished into the blue distance of the veldt, battering each other as they went, like birds that fight and fly at the same time.

From With Rimington by Phillipps, L. March