v. [f. VICTIM sb.]
1. trans. To make a victim of; to cause to suffer inconvenience, discomfort, annoyance, etc., either deliberately or by misdirected attentions.
1830. Lytton, Lett., Sept., in M. Napier’s Corr. (1879), 87. Your contributors are at full liberty to ridicule, abuse, and (allow the author of Paul Clifford to employ a slang word) victimize me.
1839. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 166. I had the honour of being kindly victimised on the occasion by our hospitable host, as the leader of the shooting world.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xli. Becky … described the occurrence, and how she had been victimised by Lady Southdown.
b. To cheat, swindle or defraud.
1839. [see Victimizing ppl. a.].
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxxix. In a turf transaction, either Spavin or Cockspur would try to get the better of his father, and, to gain a point in the odds, victimise his best friends.
1859. J. Lang, Wand. India, 20. After several officers have been victimized at play, their friends are apt to talk about the matter in an unpleasant manner.
1883. Greenwood, Odd People, 96. In what way has the rascal victimised his customer?
2. To put to death as, or in the manner of, a sacrificial victim; to slaughter.
1853. Tait’s Mag., XX. 487. Fifty thousand Gentoos were victimized by the scimitar.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, II. 541. By this wound ’Tis Pallas, Pallas, victimiseth thee, And taketh vengeance on thy cursed blood.
1899. 19th Cent., Nov., 816, note. The sacrifice used to be human, and virgins were victimised on the hill at Kandy.
transf. 1880. McCarthy, Own Times, liii. IV. 148. The prisoners … must have shared the fate of those who were victimised outside [by an explosion].
b. To destroy or spoil (plants) completely.
1849. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., X. I. 96. The wireworm had been at work to so fearful an extent, that in ten days the whole crop seemed victimised.
1882. Hardy, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. 463. Some shrubs had been victimised by the winter.
Hence Victimized ppl. a.; Victimizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1849. Soyer, Mod. Housew., 242. *Victimised Cutlets.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lxii. [He] had pledged his word … to be content with the allowance which his victimized wife still awarded him.
1855. Smedley, H. Coverdale, iv. A … system of reprisals which those victimised individuals appeared … inclined to resent.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, xv. 372. The … broken sentences of the victimized bridegroom.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 392/2. The Jews were to have his money any way. If not for their conversion, then for his own *victimizing.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lv. There was no such thing: there was no victimizing.
1839. Morning Herald, 2 Sept. The defrauded victims of … a *victimising artist.
