professional victim

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Someone who consistently portrays themselves as a victim to gain attention or sympathy

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Người luôn tự miêu tả mình là nạn nhân để thu hút sự chú ý hoặc đồng cảm

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a person who is professionally a victim
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She's always playing the professional victim to get out of her responsibilities

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “professional victim” mean?

Someone who consistently portrays themselves as a victim to gain attention or sympathy Literally: a person who is professionally a victim

Is “professional victim” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.