Victimize

//ˈvɪktɪmaɪz// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make (someone) a victim or sacrifice. transitive
  2. 2
    punish unjustly wordnet
  3. 3
    To punish unjustly. transitive

    "Yet, even as Democratic party leadership has decried this mass deportation plan and even as the bill maligns Democrats as victimizing Americans through its policy of “open borders,” 48 Democratic members of Congress voted for this GOP-backed bill."

  4. 4
    deprive of by deceit wordnet
  5. 5
    To swindle or defraud. transitive
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    make a victim of wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bamboozlebeatbeguilebeguile ofbesetbilk

Example

More examples

"The police are known to victimize anyone who isn't local to that town."

Etymology

From victim + -ize.

Related phrases

self-victimize

More for "victimize"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.