Also wrongdoer. [f. WRONG sb.2 + DOER.] One who does wrong.
1. One who commits wrongful, unjust or blameworthy acts; one who transgresses or offends against the moral law.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. xiii. (Skeat), l. 18. Suche maner badnesse, whiche is used to purifye wrong-doers, is somwhat.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. li. 123. I knowe hov all þinge is doon, I knowe þe wronge doer & suffrer.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., iv. (1885), 116. That he defende his peple ayenst wronge doers inwarde bi justice. Ibid. All the wronge doers of þe reaume.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron. (1811), 307. Wyllyam, which was … a defendor of ye pore people agayne extorcioners & wronge doers, was by them put wrongfully to deth.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xxii. She resolved to spende all her yeares … in … praying for the wrong-dooer.
1612. Bp. Hall, Contempl., O. T., IV. ii. ¶ 11. Who is so ready to except and exclaim as the wrong doer?
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 183. [That] the King … may both govern and rule … the Holy Church, and that he defend the same from wrong-doers.
1703. Rowe, Ulysses, III. i. Vindictive Jove prepares his Thunder. Let the Wrong-doer and the Tyrant tremble.
1795–6. Wordsw., Borderers, V. 2071. He forgave The wrong and the wrong-doer.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 646. They were … men of blameless life, and … were regarded … not as wrongdoers, but as martyrs.
1880. W. H. D. Adams, Wrecked Lives, Ser. I. p. iv. The unerring Nemesis of Failure dogs the footsteps of the wrongdoers.
2. Law. One who is guilty of a wrong, tort or trespass; a trespasser, tort-feasor; a law-breaker.
1501. Nottingham Rec. (1885), III. 306. The seid Mayrez and brethern … shall … punysshe the wrongdoers therin in such maner as they may lawfully do.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 181. For that [action] maketh him a wrong doer. Ibid. (1642), Inst., II. 168. If the goods or merchandises … be … taken away by certaine wrong doers not knowne.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 171. If any Seat … be taken away by a Stranger, the Church-warden … may have their Action against the Wrong-doer.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 182. A writ of entry in the post … only alleges the injury of the wrong-doer.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), V. 142. For the same acts that are good, when done by the person who has right, are not sufficient in the case of a wrong-doer.
1856. N. Brit. Rev., XXVI. 271. Shall the master … be answerable pecuniarily to the dead man’s widow, or shall it be the wrongdoer?
1911. Times, 17 May, 3/4. He (the Lord Justice) denied that the mere fact that you could not assess with precision and certainty relieved a wrongdoer from paying damages for his breach of duty.
