Word family noun offense/offense offender offensive offensiveness adjective offensive ≠ inoffensive offended offending verb offend adverb offensively
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishoffenderof‧fend‧er /əˈfendə $ -ər/ ●●○ noun [countable] 1 SCCsomeone who is guilty of a crime Community punishment is used for less serious offenders. At 16, Scott was already a persistent offender (=someone who has been caught several times for committing crimes). → first offender, sex offender, young offender2 BADsomeone or something that is the cause of something bad Among causes of air pollution, car exhaust fumes may be the worst offender.Examples from the Corpus
offender• If so the alleged offender may be held in custody to await trial.• drug offenders• The courts should impose tougher punishments on offenders.• And persistent offenders face losing their licence.• Neoclassicism allowed that some offenders were less guilty than others because they were less responsible.• Wearing a body recorder and transmitter, he engaged in several conversations with the offenders in which they incriminated themselves.• The boy was imprisoned in the Northern Territory, which has the heaviest penalties for first-time property theft offenders.• First-time offenders will get a written warning.• Among the causes of heart disease, smoking and high-fat foods are the worst offenders.• Sentence: three years' detention in a young offender institution.• Putting young offenders into a prison or other custodial establishment does not deter them from offending.• The committee will investigate more effective ways of dealing with young offenders.persistent offender• I must ask my right hon. Friend to wait for an answer to his question about persistent offenders.• Good referees are quick to pick up on this and impose penalties for persistent offenders.• But the Government accepts that for persistent offenders some kind of youth detention must also be available to the courts.• This has alarmed the Local Government Ombudsman who would like powers to investigate persistent offenders.• He said one of his main concerns was the problem of persistent offenders.• The authority has warned that it will not hesitate to prosecute persistent offenders.• Male speaker I think the company should take action against the persistent offenders, not penalise everybody.the worst offender• In my experience, those long conditioned by Centralism are the worst offenders.• And patients are the worst offenders.• Uneaten food and other dead organic materials left in the tank are the worst offenders in pollution of the water.• In this connection some scientists are by far the worst offenders.• Yet Liquid Gold is by no means the worst offender.• One of the worst offenders, the Polam lighting factory at Rzeszow, has already been shut down.• The crack cocaine epidemic has passed, and some of the worst offenders are imprisoned, mellowed or dead.From Longman Business Dictionaryoffenderof‧fend‧er /əˈfendə-ər/ noun [countable]1LAWsomeone who is guilty of a crimeRepeat offenders (=people who do something illegal several times) will face higher fines.the sentencing of first-time offendersa school for young offenders2someone or something that does something badDiscrimination specialists say small businesses are the worst offenders. 